


Strange Beginnings

by Laparoscopic



Series: EGS [3]
Category: El Goonish Shive
Genre: ADHD, Art, Brownie the cat, Dating, Fairy Doll, Gender Swapping, LIttle Teddy, Little Gracie, Little Nase, Little Suze, Magic, Model, Multi, Nudist, OT3, Polyamory, Transformation, Triad - Freeform, artist, relationship angst, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-07-27 02:54:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 23,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7600684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laparoscopic/pseuds/Laparoscopic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sarah and Tedd and Grace's Spring Break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Model Squirrel

**Author's Note:**

> 8/21/16 Revised version, tweaked to fit into official [Shiveapedia timeline](http://elgoonishshive.wikia.com/wiki/El_Goonish_Shive_Timeline) a bit better.  
> Breaks from official continuity shortly after folks meet Tara and Andrea  
> Precedes _Werewolves of Moperville_ by several months. Occurs a few weeks after _I Like to Watch_

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Squirrels aren't known for their ability to hold still.

Spring break seemed set to be a dull affair for Sarah. Her parents weren't going anywhere, and she didn't have the financial resources to travel herself, so she was trapped in Moperville for the duration. Ellen and Elliot were traveling with their parents ("An educational tour of historic sites—oh, joy," Ellen had remarked drily. "Maybe we'll get lucky and get to see the world's largest ball of twine, too."). But at least Tedd and Grace were staying in town. Upon hearing that Sarah wasn't going anywhere, and was at loose ends, Tedd had suggested that she join them for additional magical research, like she had done last summer. Sarah had jumped at the chance; despite having acquired some magical abilities of her own, she was ever hopeful of learning something more.

What Tedd had neglected to consider was that his studies were at a more advanced, theoretical level than they had been last summer. Which, translated, meant that he only ran a few fairly specialized magical experiments now and then, and then spent the rest of the time working on his computer, or scribbling madly in notebooks, when the magical symbology he was developing couldn't be properly entered into the computer.

The upshot of which was, Sarah spent a lot of time with Grace while waiting for Tedd to come up with new experiments. Which was fine by her; Grace was one of her favorite people. For the first couple of days they just hung out and played video games, the weather being too gray and dismal to want to do anything outside.

On Tuesday, Sarah also brought a sketch pad with her, to do some drawing. She enjoyed playing games with Grace, but she felt a need for a change of pace.

Grace perked up when Sarah walked in with her sketchpad under her arm. Sarah normally carried a small sketchbook in her backpack, which Grace had seen her use many times before, but this was the first time she'd seen Sarah with a larger pad.

"Oooh, what are you going to draw?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to have the option to do something other than video games to pass the time."

"Can I see what you've done?" Grace's smile was so hopeful that Sarah quashed her usual shyness about showing her work to others.

"If you want... there's not much in here, it's a new pad, mostly blank."

Sarah put the large pad down on the couch, and Grace flipped it open. Only the first few pages had any drawings on them. One was a color pencil sketch of a bouquet of flowers that her mother had bought the other day to 'brighten things up'. The next page had a half dozen pencil studies of Sarah's left hand in various positions. The next couple of pages showed a some figure drawings, of nude men.

"Who's that?" Grace asked.

"Dunno; I have some books of anatomy and poses for artists that I work from."

"Oh, so you didn't draw them in person?"

Sarah snorted. "No. The community art center has open life drawing studios, but I can't afford them." She flipped the page over to the next, blank page. "And even if I could—"

Grace waited for her to finish the sentence, then prompted, "If you could, what?"

Sarah flushed slightly. "I know this is going to sound stupid to you, but—I'm too shy to sign up for them anyway."

Grace frowned slightly. "Shy? Why, because you don't think your drawings are good enough? Isn't that what you're supposed to learn, how to be better?"

"No, not that; I'm an okay artist, and I _am_ getting better with practice. It's just... well..." She trailed off. She tried to imagine how she'd explain being shy around naked people to Grace. Grace, who had all the body modesty of a squirrel, and whom she'd seen naked probably more times than she'd seen her own sister naked. She sighed, and just went for the direct approach, since speaking obliquely with Grace usually just resulted in more confusion.

"I'm nervous about the idea of being around a real live naked model."

Grace tilted her head. "I thought you were getting used to being around me naked."

"You, yes; random total strangers, not so much."

"So, don't they have drawing classes with clothed models?"

"Oh, sure, for younger students, or folks who don't want to work with nudes. But it's a normal part of art training to study the nude, to get to know anatomy better." She grimaced and shook her head. "I really need to get over this hang-up; when I go off to college, the introductory drawing classes will almost certainly involve working from the figure."

Grace perked up. "I could model for you!" she said.

"Ah..." Sarah paused. She had been considering asking Grace to pose for her later, but she had mostly been thinking of portraits, face studies. But she knew without asking that Grace was offering to be a nude model.

"I could even shift into a different form, if you want to get used to seeing different people naked. Or if you wanted to draw a male figure instead of female."

"I'm... not sure that would really help; I would still know it was you."

"But at least you could get some practice drawing the figure. And maybe I could keep one or two to put up in my room? Ooh, or give one to Teddy to put up in his room?"

Sarah grinned as she imagined how Edward, Tedd's dad, would react to that. The potential to tweak his nose a little appealed enough to overcome her usual shyness about sharing her artwork with others. "If you really wanted to, sure. I can't promise anything I do will be worth hanging up."

Grace scoffed at that notion. "I've seen your drawings. I'd _love_ to have something by you to put up."

Sarah thought a minute more. She was getting more used to being around Grace when she was naked, yes, but the idea of Grace being naked at her _request_ felt different. And she wouldn't just be 'being around' Grace naked, she would be actively staring at her, possibly for hours. The thought gave her a little shiver, which she ignored.

But she really did want to practice figure drawing. As well as work on getting over her shyness.

She called to Tedd, who had been working at his computer, apparently oblivious to the conversation behind him. "Hey, Tedd, how do you feel about Grace getting naked and dancing around the basement?" She deliberately phrased the query as provocatively as possible, wondering if his mind was anywhere in this world.

"Hmm? Grace? I'm not sure I could stop her if I wanted to," he replied absently. "Not that I would. Want to, that is." He finally paused in his work and turned around to look at them. "Why, are you going to have a naked DDR contest or something?"

Grace laughed, Sarah rolled her eyes. "No, nothing like that; I was just thinking of doing some figure studies of Grace. You don't have any experiments planned for us in the next few hours, do you?"

"No, I'm probably a day away from the next round. Say, could I have one of the drawings?" Grace laughed again, and Sarah smiled.

"Sure. Grace had already asked for one on your behalf, as payment for her work."

"Oh, I don't need payment—" Grace began.

"That was a joke. Mostly. Though I feel like I should pay you something; modeling is hard work."

Tedd grinned. "Standing around naked is hard work? Maybe for other people, but that just comes naturally to Grace."

"Maybe the naked part comes naturally, but the standing still part is a bit harder. Stiffness, cramping and sore muscles are common complaints."

"Oh, I can adjust my musculature to avoid cramps," Grace said.

"Okay. Wow. That could be handy."

"So, how do we start?"

"Uh...." Sarah had heard about life drawing classes, but had never actually attended one. "Well, usually, I guess we'd start with a bunch of short poses, like a minute long, just to let me warm up and get into the flow of things."

"Okay!" Grace peeled off her shirt and dropped it on the couch. She wasn't wearing a bra, of course, since they never knew what kind of transformations Tedd might be putting them through. Sarah looked away, embarrassed as always watching her undress, and opened her pencil case and pulled out her favorite 2B pencil. She pulled two chairs face-to-face, setting up one as an improvised easel to hold her sketchpad upright. She looked up to see Grace standing in front of her, as unself-conscious as she ever was in her naked state. Sarah's heart beat a little faster at the thought of trying to capture such beauty on paper, then she mentally shook her head. _I'll be lucky to produce anything that looks even vaguely like her._

She pulled out her phone, and set a repeating timer for one minute. "Okay, every time the timer beeps, you change positions to something new, okay?"

"Sure!"

Sarah blew out a breath, and began putting pencil to paper.

* * *

An hour and a half later, the basement was quiet, except for the clatter of keys as Tedd typed away at his computer, and the scratching sound of pencil across paper as Sarah worked.

"Graaa–ace!"

Grace looked up at Sarah, startled. "Yes?"

"You moved again."

"I did?"

"Your left hand?"

Grace's left hand froze in the act of twirling her hair around her fingers. "Oh. Sorry! Where is it supposed to be?"

Sarah sighed, put down her pencil, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Never mind. Let's take five, okay?"

"Sure!" Grace bounced up from the couch where she'd been reclining, theoretically holding still. She crossed over to where Sarah sat with the large sketchpad on her lap, having given up on trying to prop it up on the second chair. "Can I see what you've done?"

Sarah pushed down her discomfort—part embarrassment at showing anyone else her work, part awkwardness at closer proximity to Grace's casual nudity—and said "Of course." She flipped the pages of her sketchpad back a dozen pages, to where she'd started sketching, and handed it to Grace.

The drawing session had started out well enough, with Grace flowing into an interesting variety of poses for the quick sketches. It was when they tried to switch to longer poses that things had gotten—problematic. Sarah hadn't counted on Grace's part-squirrel nature. She literally could not sit still for more than a few minutes at a time, no matter how hard she tried. In a human, Sarah would have offered a layperson's diagnosis of ADHD, but she wasn't sure it could really be called that in Grace's case—it wasn't a hyperactive _disorder,_ per se, but a natural part of her non-human heritage.

But Grace was wonderful for doing gestural sketches—quick poses where Sarah tried to capture the _feeling_ of the pose in quick, broad strokes. Grace was flipping through the first pages of the sketchbook where Sarah had done a good dozen of those.

"Oooh, I like this one," Grace said, holding up a sketch of when she'd been standing _en pointe_ , arms over head and back arched like a ballerina. Grace had proven good to her promise of being able to hold contorted poses without cramping; no normal human could have held that pose for a full minute.

Although Grace was posing in human form, some of the quick strokes Sarah had used to depict her legs also seemed to imply a large bushy tail, which was part of Grace's natural form. Looked at literally, the sketch barely resembled a person at all, but more like a dancing flame caught in motion; yet it was still, unmistakably, Grace.

"Yeah, I'm pleased with that one too," Sarah reluctantly admitted. "I think it's the best one of the lot."

Grace kept flipping through the remaining pages. "Really? Not even any of the longer pose—oh." She came to the last few pages, where Sarah had tried to do some longer, more detailed sketches. Each image was roughed in, but not completed; just Grace's face and one arm were finished on the first, her legs and feet on the second, and so on. Grace seemed to shrink in on herself a little. "I'm sorry, Sarah; I _tried_ to hold still, but it's just so hard."

Sarah surprised herself by putting an arm around the naked woman's shoulders and giving her a squeeze. "It's okay, sweetie. Maybe we just need to take more frequent breaks." She let go of Grace and took her sketchpad back. "Or maybe you can do something to distract yourself? Play with your DS, or read a book? Or we could put something on TV for you to watch."

"Mmmm. Maybe," said Grace dubiously. "But I tend to be a pretty active gamer. I've accidentally tossed my console across the room more than once. And Tedd tells me I, uh, bounce when reading a good book."

"Bounce?"

"Yeah, I get so excited, I just sorta' bounce up and down in my seat."

"Ah. What about non-fiction? Any good science books you haven't gotten a chance to read yet?"

"Same problem. Good science is exciting too!"

Sarah laughed. "Boy, Tedd sure found the perfect girlfriend for him. Right, Tedd?"

Tedd, working away at his computer, said "Hunh?" He didn't look up from what he was doing.

"I said—oh, never mind. Do you have any ideas?"

"Millions." After a long pause, he added, "Ideas for what?"

Sarah sighed. "Ideas for how Grace might manage to sit still for half an hour or so, so I can sketch her."

"Hmm." He typed in a flurry of code, then said distractedly, "Well, she usually mellows out pretty well after two or three orgasms."

Grace laughed. Sarah's eyes went wide and she felt herself flushing. Tedd froze, as what he had just said sank in. He finally looked up from his computer, turning towards Sarah and Grace, his face almost as red as Sarah's. "Uh, that is—"

Sarah started to turn away from them, but without consciously willing it, she felt her magic surge through her body, and Grace and Tedd froze in place beside her. They were magically frozen in what Sarah thought of as a bubble of 'other-time', where she could move around and explore a magically created duplicate of her environment for several minutes, before snapping back to just a few moments after she'd cast the spell. The first time she had cast the spell had been in a moment of panicked embarrassment, at the possibility of her sister walking in on her naked. Though she had cast the spell many times since then, this was the first time since that initial incident that she'd done so reflexively, out of shock, not volitionally.

She looked at them, frozen in place, both looking like they were about to speak, Tedd blushing, Grace smiling. _Of course they're having sex. I knew that._ It had been pretty well implied from various comments dropped here and there. Well, and the fact that Tedd had only watched Grace dancing around the room nude for a couple of minutes before turning back to his computer to do some work. _No one attracted to women_ _could_ not _watch that display unless they'd gotten laid recently,_ she thought wryly. Fortunately, she'd had a sketchpad to hand, and so had an excuse to keep staring at the beautiful young woman. And if the occasional curve of her breast, or arch of her neck, had caused a little frisson of pleasure to run through Sarah's body, well, that was nobody's business but her own.

Still, to have their sex life flat out confirmed, by mistake, was disconcerting. She was also surprised to feel a pang of jealousy, and sorrow.

She stared at them, and briefly considered swapping her consciousness into Grace's body, just to see how it felt to _be_ that sexy, but she pushed the thought aside. _They're your friends. Be happy for them,_ she scolded herself. She shook her head, then exerted her will and popped her other-time bubble, returning to the real world.

Sarah was back to turning away from Tedd and Grace. The little physical moment of freezing in place that went with the spell was more like a flinch. "Well, I don't think that's going to help us much here," she said dryly. She stepped back to her chair and dropped her sketch pad onto it, then began fiddling with her pencil case. She looked back at them, Grace standing beside Tedd sitting at his desk.

Grace had apparently not noticed Sarah's momentary freeze. "Maybe there's something there we could work with," said Grace cheerfully.

Tedd, more magically attuned than Grace, was looking at Sarah with a thoughtful little frown, though his blush was still rising.

Sarah turned away and pulled out her sharpener and gave her 2B pencil a few savage twists to put a point back on it. Then she realized she now had a palm full of pencil shavings— _Where is the trash can?_ _Oh, of course, next to Tedd's desk._ She sighed, tossed her pencil and sharpener onto her sketchpad, and turned back, hoping that her blush had faded a little.

Tedd's blush hadn't. _Really, with that purple hair, he should try to avoid blushing,_ thought Sarah. _The colors just clash._ She snorted, then brushed her hands off over the trash can.

"Sarah? Is something wrong?" Grace asked.

"No. Why would something be wrong?"

"I'm not sure, but—you're suddenly more tense. Not talking. And you and Tedd are both blushing.... Did I say something—Is it a sex thing?"

Sarah and Tedd looked at each other, then at Grace—beautiful, gloriously naked Grace, her face a picture of concern and confusion—and they both started giggling.

"Uh, yeah, you could say that," Sarah said. She felt her shoulders drop a little—she hadn't even noticed them tensing up.

"I'm sorry," Tedd said, "I should think before I speak. But, no, sweetie, I _don't_ think there's something there that we can work with."

Sarah's giggles increased. "I can just see it, calling you up, 'Hey, I'm going to come over to do some sketching in a couple hours, so start making out now!'"

"It doesn't always take us a full two hours to—"

"TMI! TMI! TMI!" Tedd interjected hurriedly, which made Sarah both blush and giggle harder. Tedd and Grace both joined her in the laughter. Sarah dropped to the floor and sat cross-legged, giggling some more. She buried her face in her hands and laughed harder, then her laughter slowly faded out, but her shoulders kept heaving, as the laughter gave way to gentle sobbing.

It took Tedd and Grace a moment to register the change. Tedd reached out a hesitant hand toward her shoulder, then dropped it. He looked helplessly at Grace, shrugging in confusion.

Grace dropped to her knees beside Sarah and wrapped an arm around her. "Sarah, what's wrong?"

Sarah started to turn to bury her head in Grace's shoulder, but then she pulled back. Her crying hiccuped back into a single laugh, then stopped. "Grace, could you put something on, or at least, grow some fur? I don't think I can hug you like this, and, and, and I _really_ want a hug right now." She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and sniffed, then watched, fascinated as always, as Grace transformed into what Sarah thought of as her basic squirrel-human self. Slightly smaller, with soft brown fur covering her body. Two furry antennae sprouted from her head, her ears elongated and pointed out to the sides, and the tip of her tail became visible behind her, twitching slightly.

"You know I'm still naked under this fur, right?" Grace smiled.

"Yeah, but that's kinda' like saying I'm still naked under my clothes. Well, maybe not _exactly_ like, but..." She shook her head, then pulled the now-smaller woman into her arms, resting her chin on top of Grace's head. She took a deep breath to get herself under control, then blew it out. "I'm sorry." She gently stroked Grace's back, distracting herself with the feel of the soft fur under her hands.

"For what?"

"For—I don't know. Crying. Being stupid."

"You're _not_ stupid! But... I'm not sure why you were crying."

"That's what's stupid. I'm—I'm happy for you, you two, glad that you've got each other. And I'd already figured out months ago that you were, um, sleeping together, but hearing it said out loud like that..." She trailed off.

"Yes?" prompted Grace.

Sarah buried her face in Grace's hair. "I know it's stupid and it's petty and selfish and I'm sorry, but I just can't help feeling—jealous." She hesitated, then honesty compelled her to add, "And sad."

"Sad? Um, I kinda' get the jealous part, but why sad?"

"Elliot. He—" She broke off and looked up at Tedd, Elliot's best friend, still sitting on the chair beside them. "Promise not to tell him about this?"

Tedd blinked. "About what?"

"It's—old relationship stuff, stuff that no longer really applies, since we're not dating any more."

Tedd chewed on his lip for a moment, then said, "As long as you don't tell me anything I think he _needs_ to know."

"That's—uh, convoluted, but—okay. It really is just old stuff, about our old relationship, not our current friendship. At least, if you feel like you _have_ to tell him some of this, would you tell me first?"

"Okay. I promise."

"Me too," added Grace.

"Hmmm." Sarah had lost her momentum in this side-track. She hugged Grace and rocked back and forth a little.

"Why sad?" prompted Grace.

"Me and Elliot—" She felt her face starting to redden again, and her eyes felt prickly. "I don't know why we never, never—you know. Did it. I tried to seduce him, or set him up so he could seduce me, but—" She closed her eyes, not quite believing that she was actually admitting this to anyone. "It's just—what's _wrong_ with me? Why didn't he _want_ me?" She hid her face in Grace's hair, and tried to keep her tears from starting up again.

"Oh, sweetie," Grace murmured. She rocked gently with her. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. You're wonderful, and cute, and sexy."

"There's the whole reason he broke up with you in the first place; the he 'loves you like a sister' thing," Tedd offered.

"Yeah, but _why_ does he feel that way? Am I that plain, or ugly, that I couldn't excite his interest in other ways? _Fuck!"_ The unexpected profanity made Grace and Tedd jump a little. "I hate this! I think he loved me, loves me—"

"He really does, you know," said Tedd.

"—but I look at you two, and at Nanase and Ellen, and Elliot and Ashley, how happy you all are, and I wonder—is there something _missing_ from me? What's wrong with me that I can't have that kind of happiness?" She gave up and let her tears flow, quieter this time, soaking Grace's head. Grace continued to rock with her in silent sympathy. "And it doesn't help that it seems like Elliot and Ashley are, are being, are, well, _intimate_ , after dating for only a couple of months," she finished miserably.

Tedd got down from his chair and sat next to them, putting a tentative arm around the two of them, with Grace in the middle."Sarah, there's nothing wrong with you, it's not your fault—it's not _anybody's_ fault if things just didn't work out that way. Things just—didn't click. You're still hella cute and sexy."

Sarah sniffed, and said "Right. _Sexy_. You've never looked at me that way before, now you're just trying to be nice."

"That's not true! I—" He broke off and looked at Grace.

After a few moments of silence, curiosity penetrated Sarah's misery, and she looked up. "You what?"

Addressing Grace, he said slowly, "I don't think you'd mind me saying—" He shook his head. "What am I saying? Of _course_ you wouldn't mind."

Both women were staring at him now, slightly confused. "Mind what?" asked Grace.

Tedd dropped his arm from around their shoulders, and brought his knees up to wrap his arms around them. He turned his attention back to Sarah. "Do you know what one of my biggest regrets about the whole cat-girl transformation mess-up was? Even more than worrying about scaring you off of transformations for good?"

Sarah, puzzled by this apparent non-sequitur, just shook her head.

"I—" he glanced briefly at Grace again, then blurted out "I was sad that you'd probably never trust me enough after that to want to go out with me." Now Tedd's blush was returning. He closed his eyes. "This was all before you came along, of course, Grace. But—you're so artistic and clever and beautiful and creative and sexy and _nice_ —I had a huge crush on you for a long time," he finished in a rush, then hid his face on top of his knees.

"Also, you were a _really_ hot cat-girl," he mumbled into his knees.

Sarah was flabbergasted. There'd never been _anything_ in Tedd's past behavior that would have lead her to believe he had any interest in her. She opened her mouth several times to speak, but could think of literally nothing to say.

Grace, of course, had no such problem. "Awww, that's so sweet! See, Sarah, it's not just me, Teddy thinks you're sexy too!"

"I—what?" Sarah's attention snapped back from Tedd to Grace. "You— _what?_ "

Grace, oblivious, went on, "And you know we can't be the only ones! You've just got to get out there and look some more. You're too wonderful to _not_ find a special someone someday. They might not just turn up on your doorstep in a trench coat, but they _will_ show up." She finally noticed that Sarah was staring at her, and her smile turned uncertain. "I'm sorry, is this the wrong time for a pep-talk?"

Sarah closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "No—not the wrong time, I—Yeah, yeah, you're right, I've just got to keep looking." Her emotions had reached a breaking point, and she felt she had to get away from this conversation. She disentangled herself from Grace's arms and stood up abruptly. "Oh, hey, look at the time, I've got to go." She picked up her sketchpad and pencil case and fled for the stairs. "See you later."

"Sarah! Wait, what—did I say something wrong? I don't understand."

Sarah paused at the foot of the stairs. She knew how sensitive Grace was; she couldn't leave her hanging in doubt like that, blaming herself for what Sarah was feeling. She sighed, and, staring at the stairs so she wouldn't have to look at Grace and Tedd, said "No, Grace, you didn't say anything wrong. You either, Tedd," she added. "I just—you gave me a lot to think about, that's all. Don't worry about it. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed her jacket and ran up the stairs and left.

* * *

Sarah walked on autopilot, not seeing the neighborhood around her, her thoughts in turmoil. _Grace thinks I'm sexy? Heck,_ Tedd _thinks I'm sexy?_ She wasn't sure which thought flustered her more. Or which she disbelieved more. _I'm sure they were just trying to be nice to the stupid crying girl._ Except Grace was the world's worst liar; she even had troubles with most polite social lies.

And Tedd—he had been genuinely embarrassed by what he was admitting. Tedd was brilliant at many things, but even after months with Grace, his social and emotional skills were minimal at best. And he was a lousy actor. No way could he have created an emotionally involved story like that on the spot, just to make her feel better.

Sarah kept playing the phrase over in her mind:  _It's not just me, Tedd thinks you're sexy too!_ Not just me? Tedd? Too?

She shook her head. _So what? So they think I'm—not ugly. They're both already in a relationship—with each other!—so it's not like it has anything to do with me. It's just a compliment. Like telling me my blouse looks nice today._ The ache in her stomach made her wish she could really believe that. _Yeah, just a compliment._

Her feet stopped moving, and she looked up to realize that she had headed, not for home, but for Elliot's house. _Fudge. Stupid subconscious. Not that he's even here._ No-one was home except for Brownie, the cat, whom she had fed that morning on her way to Tedd's house. For a moment she considered letting herself in, to snuggle with the cat for a while, but she shook her head and turned towards home.

Approaching home, she was glad to see that her mother's car wasn't in the driveway; she wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone just yet. She went in, hung up her coat, and went to the kitchen. She put her sketchpad and pencil case down on the kitchen table. She poured herself a mug of milk, heated it in the microwave, then squirted some chocolate syrup into it and stirred. Returning to the table, her gaze fell on the bouquet that she'd previously drawn, in a vase on the table. _Let me sketch just that one rose_ , she thought. Drawing allowed her to escape her thoughts, pulled her away from her worries. She rummaged in her pencil case, then cursed as she realized she'd left her sharpener and 2B pencil behind on the chair. _Heck with it, I can work with an HB._ She flipped open her sketchpad.

The partially finished sketch of Grace's face looked up at her.

 _Damnit. She is a walking_ definition _of sexy. What am I in comparison? Flat-chested, pudgy, zit-faced, straight thin hair..._ An hour of staring at Grace's beauty had not helped her self-esteem any.

Without thinking about it, her pencil started to dance across the page, refining details and adding shadows and depth she'd not had time for before. _It's not a perfect likeness, I don't think her nose is really that wide, but it's pretty close._ Then she laughed to herself. _If I showed this to Grace, she could_ make _it into a perfect likeness by changing her face to match. Now,_ there's _a different approach to doing accurate portraiture—change the subject to match the image._ Her pencil slowed, and she stared at the page. There was something in that idea that gave her pause.

 _That_ is _what Grace is doing, in a way,_ she thought. _She's slowly reshaped herself to more closely match Tedd's image of a perfect girlfriend._ Sarah thought back to the first time she'd met Grace, to take her clothes shopping, right after she had shown up on Tedd's doorstep in nothing but a trenchcoat. She was basically the same person, a photo from that time would not be mistaken for anyone else, but she had subtly shifted over time. She was a bit more curvy, more muscular, an inch or so taller. Nothing that an outside observer would think twice about; it could be rationalized as a late growth spurt, or the results of a new exercise program. Except Grace's human form was purely voluntary, self-controlled. Her human face closely matched the face of her human-squirrel hybrid self, but the perfect hair and skin and perfectly symmetrical features were Grace's choices, conscious or not.

_Heh. I should tell her that if she wants to blend in better, she should grow a pimple on her nose now and then._

She shook her head and dismissed the thought as unworthy. She stared at her drawing a moment longer before flipping to a blank page. What did it matter? Even if she was right, it just emphasized the difference between what Grace or Tedd _really_ thought was sexy, and her.

She stared at the rose in front of her for a few moments, then bent to her drawing pad and began to sketch.

It was a _very_ intense picture of a flower.


	2. Dinner and a Movie

Sarah almost chickened out the next morning, but ultimately she managed to make herself head over to the Verres house, only a few minutes later than she usually did.

But once there, she suffered another failure of nerve. She stood on the doorstep, hand poised to ring the doorbell, for almost a full minute, before the door flew open without her ringing. Sarah started at the unexpected movement.

"Hi, Sarah! Is the doorbell not working?" Grace asked. She was dressed in sweatpants and a Firefly t-shirt.

"No, I mean, yes, that is, I'm sure it's working, I just hadn't pushed it yet." She pushed the button to prove her point. She heard the bell chime behind Grace. "How did you know I was here?"

"I've been watching out the front window waiting for you," said Grace, as she stepped aside to let Sarah in. "When the bell didn't ring after you got here, I thought I'd better check."

"You were? Why? I'm not _that_ late."

"No, but..." Grace shifted from foot to foot. She looked down at her feet, then back up. "Hug?" she asked quietly, holding out her arms.

Sarah's heart melted at her friend's obvious worry. "Of course," she replied, and stepped into Grace's arms. She was surprised at the strength of the embrace. Then she was surprised at how long it went on. After nearly a full minute, she pulled back a bit from Grace, and Grace reluctantly dropped her arms.

"What was that for?" asked Sarah.

"I talked about what happened with Tedd last night, and I _think_ I understand better now why you were upset yesterday. But I was worried you might not come back."

"Of _course_ I'd come back—"

"Grace?" Tedd's voice floated up from the basement. "Was that Sarah at the door?"

"Yes. We're coming." She headed down the stairs, and Sarah followed.

Tedd was male this morning, sitting in front of his computer, but his chair was turned around, so he was facing the room, not the screen. He put his glasses on as they came down the steps, and then a moment later he took them off again. Sarah recalled Elliot had once called the glasses Tedd's 'security blanket', and she wondered why he was fiddling with them. He raised them in his hand as if to put them on again, then stopped, and turned slightly in his seat to put them down next to his keyboard.

"Hey, Tedd," she said as she took off her coat and hung it on a hook at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey, Sarah. Uh, how're you doing?"

 Sarah sighed. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Listen, you two, I'm sorry about yesterday—"

"No, I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking—"

Sarah held up her hands palm out, cutting Tedd off. She tried to remember what she'd rehearsed to say. "It wasn't you, it wasn't Grace. It was just me, me and my... insecurities bubbling up. I'm sorry I subjected you to all that. I appreciate the implied compliment, that you think I'm... sexy." She grimaced, and added, sotto voce, "As if."

Grace's better-than-human hearing picked up the muttered remark. She looked distressed. "Why don't you believe it? Don't you trust us?"

"Trust you? What does trust have to do with it?"

"Trust our taste, or trust us not to lie to you?"

Sarah ran her fingers through her hair, pulling at it slightly in frustration. "No, no, it's not that, it's just, just— _fudge!_ You're going off-script!"

Tedd and Grace looked at her blankly. "Off-script?" Tedd asked.

Sarah snorted. "Feh. I had this whole apology thing planned out in my head, but you're not responding the way I imagined you would."

"Oh. So what had you planned to say?"

"I—" She paused and considered. "What it boiled down to was, I'm sorry for all the drama yesterday. It's not your fault, it's just my own neuroses, the end, let's move on to the next thing, what are we studying today?"

"You don't have to say 'sorry' for anything, Sarah; break-ups are hard, even when they're friendly ones."

"No, it wasn't about the break-up, really, it's more—" She looked at Grace, her face a picture of sympathy and concern. She was listening with an intensity that was practically palpable. Even Tedd was listening closely, where a year ago he probably would have already fled a conversation about emotions and feelings, or at least made some snarky comment.

 _If they're going to listen, I should at least try to tell them the truth._ She sighed, and braced herself mentally. "I mostly was feeling insecure and jealous, after spending an hour studying you, Grace."

"What?"

"I thought you said it wasn't about me?"

"Arrrgghhh! It's not! It's _me_ , my jealousy, my insecurity, my, my shortcomings in comparison to you." Sarah paced around the couch, too nervous to stay still. "Nothing's your fault, you can't help being more beautiful, it's just the way you are—"

"More beautiful? Sarah, you're beautiful too—"

"And sexy—"

"Stop that!" She whirled to face the couple and glared at them. "Stop saying that!" She was appalled to realize her eyes were welling up with tears again. She had so wanted to get through the day without crying again. "I'm not—you're not—ah, _frat!"_ She turned her back on the two and shut her eyes, trying to get her emotions under control.

"Frat?" Grace said curiously after a moment's silence.

Sarah sniffed, rubbed at her eyes, then turned back around. "I don't know, it's some made up swear word from TV that Susan uses sometimes."

"Oh. I think you mean 'frak'," said Tedd.

Sarah waved this away. "Frak, frat, whatever. I'm sorry, I promised myself that I'd get through this without crying again."

Grace put an arm around her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. "Sarah, it's obvious something is bothering you, but I'm confused as to what, exactly, it is."

Sarah looked at Grace's open concerned face, and sighed. "You know, it'd be a lot easier to hate you if you weren't so darn _nice_."

"What? Hate me? _Why_?" Now Grace looked like she was about to cry. Tedd didn't look much happier.

"It's a figure of speech, a figure of speech! I don't hate you!" Sarah said quickly. She pulled Grace into a hug. "I could _never_ hate you, silly squirrel." She impulsively gave Grace a quick kiss on the forehead, then buried her face in Grace's hair. She loved the way Grace smelled, and breathing in her scent calmed her down a little.

"Okay... a figure of speech. Okay. Right. Can you please explain it to me?"

Sarah took it as a measure of Grace's distress that she was clinging tightly to Sarah again, and felt guilty about her poor word choice. She rested her head on Grace's shoulder for a moment as she collected her thoughts, then pulled back a little so she could see the other woman's face, while still keeping her arms on her shoulders.

Forcing herself to look Grace in the eyes, she said, "Sweetie, you've got to know—you're incredibly beautiful."

Grace nodded. "And?"

Sarah felt another small stab of jealousy at that simple acknowledgement. No self-doubt, no deflecting of the compliment, no self-criticism; just acceptance of a simple statement of fact. She pushed the dark emotion away and continued.

"What I meant by my poorly worded figure of speech was, it would be easy for someone to be jealous of your beauty and hate you for it, envy you for it. Except you're so kind and sweet and nice, it's impossible to hate you."

"Why would my beauty make someone hate me?"

"Because I—because they're not. That beautiful. It's just jealousy, ugly jealousy, nothing more." Sarah pulled Grace back to her and buried her face in her hair again.

"Sarah..." Grace said slowly. "I know you asked us to stop saying it, but—you're beautiful, too. Why is it that you can say that to me, but I can't say it to you?"

Now Sarah found she was holding Grace as tightly as Grace had been holding her. "Because it's not true," she whispered. She closed her eyes to keep the tears in. "I've got eyes. I can see you, I can see me. I'm nowhere near as beautiful as you."

Sarah was startled as Tedd came up behind her and put his arms around both women, sandwiching her between himself and Grace. "Bzzzzt! Wrong," he said, making a buzzer-like sound. The silliness of it startled a short laugh out of Sarah. "Maybe you're not beautiful _like_ Grace, but you're beautiful like _Sarah."_

Sarah snorted. "Same difference."

"No, it's—arrgggh." Tedd released them and moved around to behind Grace so he could look Sarah in the face. "Sarah. Shut up a minute and listen to us. I don't know where you got this notion you're not beautiful, but you. Are. Wrong. Yes, Grace is beautiful, but so what? So are you. It's like—" he paused a moment, as if searching for the right words. "Okay, to use a sappy analogy worthy of My Little Pony, are roses beautiful?"

After a moment, realizing that Tedd was waiting for an answer, Sarah said, "Yes?..."

"And are irises beautiful?"

"Yes?"

"Do they look like alike?"

"Well, they're both flowers."

"And you and Grace are both women."

"Usually."

Tedd grinned. "Okay, you're both people. The analogy stands. You're both beautiful people, beautiful in different ways."

Sarah sighed, and let go of Grace. She stepped back and rubbed her face with both her hands. "I... hear what you're trying to say. I... just..." She blew out a breath, then looked up to find both Tedd and Grace watching her with an unnerving intensity.

"Sarah, you _are_ beautiful."

"I'm—"

" _Stop."_ Tedd stepped up beside Grace, and put a hand on Sarah's shoulder. "Listen, I don't know where this feeling comes from, I get that it's deep-seated, and we're not going to make it all go away today, but could you do us a favor?"

Sarah glowered, suspecting what was coming next. "What?"

"Will you just let us tell you you're beautiful without fighting it? No denials, no comparisons, no 'yes, but's, just—accept it. Hear it. Even if you don't really believe it, trust that _we_ believe it, and that we wouldn't lie to you about it?"

Sarah shut her eyes again, not wanting to see their friendly faces, so concerned, so warm. This time she wasn't surprised to suddenly find herself in the middle of a Grace and Tedd embrace.

"I'm not sure I can do that," she mumbled into Tedd's shoulder.

"Try? Please?"

She sighed, and wrapped her arms around him, surprised to find how good it felt to do so. She wasn't sure she'd ever hugged Tedd before. "All right. Just—don't do it too often, okay?"

Tedd laughed. "Okay. We'll try not to be _too_ nice to you." Then he dropped his embrace, and took a step back from her so he could put his hands on her shoulders. "But, Sarah?" He place a fingertip under her chin, lifting her face. She reluctantly looked up into his eyes.

"You are beautiful."

She shut her eyes and clenched her teeth against the automatic response.

"You are beautiful," echoed Grace in her ear, still hugging her from behind.

Sarah's jaw clenched tighter, then she snorted and opened her eyes to look at Tedd. "Okay. I hear you. Can we—move on? Get to work? I can only take so much of this intense touchy-feely stuff at one time."

Grace released her, and stepped around to her side. "Actually, we had one more kind of touchy-feely thing to ask you."

"If you don't mind," Tedd said.

"Ask me?"

"It sorta' evolved from stuff we talked about yesterday."

Sarah's thoughts skittered away from compliments to try and recall yesterday's conversation. "Which stuff? There was a fair bit of stuff."

"Well, about... uh..." Tedd floundered. He looked helplessly at Grace.

"It's something we both wanted to ask you, but I think Tedd should ask, since it was his idea."

"Uh, yeah, right." Tedd started to take a step towards Sarah, then he rocked back on his heels. He pushed his finger up the bridge of his nose, as if adjusting glasses which weren't there. "What I—What we—wanted to ask you was—do you want to go out with us to dinner and a movie Friday night?"

Sarah stared at Tedd a moment, wondering why this simple request required so much lead-up. They all went out to the movies fairly frequently. "Yeah, sure. Why not?"

Grace and Tedd exchanged an unreadable look, and then Grace added, "That is, do you want to _go out_ go out with us?"

Sarah's brain did a little hiccup, and she stared at Grace. "Go out go out?" she repeated blankly.

"Like, on a date? The three of us?"

Sarah opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She looked at Grace, then at Tedd, then back at Grace. She fought down the urge to freeze time, just to give herself time to think. There was no way they wouldn't notice her doing it now, with them both staring at her. Grace looked cheerful but a bit apprehensive; Tedd mostly just looked apprehensive. "Uhhhh... you don't have to go _that_ far to convince me I'm—not ugly."

Grace punched her arm, gently, and said, "Stop saying that. And we're not. We talked about this last night."

"Sorry, I—uh, wow." She sat down abruptly on the couch, and stared up at her two friends.

"I told you we talked about yesterday's conversation a long time."

"Yeah, but I assumed it was just, I dunno, trying to figure out what had happened yesterday. Not—this."

"You're not offended, are you?" Grace asked anxiously. "I mean, I know it's not a traditional sort of thing to do—"

"And how."

"—but it's something we both want, and we thought, maybe, if you did too, we might give it a try?"

Sarah sat thinking for a moment, trying to process a notion which had literally never occurred to her before. "I'm not offended, no, of course not. Like I said before, it's—it's a compliment, saying that you like me. That way."

Grace relaxed a little at this, and sat down beside Sarah. "Tedd was the one who suggested we go out to dinner and a movie. I thought we've been spending so much time together here in the basement, and we've gone out to movies together a bunch of times before, so it was almost like we'd already had a few dates, and we could skip ahead to the hugs and smoochies stage. But Tedd said no."

Sarah blinked. "That's—" She looked up at Tedd. "That's surprisingly perceptive and mature of you, Tedd."

He smiled crookedly. "Hey, I'm not _all_ test tubes and cat girls."

"No, you're mostly just cat girls." Sarah glanced around the basement. "Do you even _have_ any test tubes?" Then she shook her head, looked back at Tedd and added, "I'm sorry, that was flip; I know you're not just about cat girls." She reached out to take his hand and pulled him down to sit on the couch beside her. As soon as he sat, she realized she'd just placed herself between the two lovers, quite literally. The metaphor for their situation struck her as potentially fraught.

"I—appreciate the compliment, but—I don't want to risk coming between you guys. I mean, it's obvious how much you two mean to each other. I've never seen you happier, Tedd, in all the years I've known you." She turned to Grace. "And I've only known you a little while, relatively speaking, but from what I've learned about your past I know Tedd has been a comfort and a life-saver for you in more ways than one."

Grace squeezed her hand. "I don't think of it as coming between. We just thought, we're happy together, maybe that 'we' could be a little bit bigger. We could _all_ be happy together."

"And it's not like we're asking you to marry us. It's just a date. Dates are for getting to know each other a bit better. See if anything— _more_ is a possibility. Maybe there is, maybe there isn't."

Sarah leaned back into the couch, so she could better see the both of them at the same time. They both were smiling slightly, and they looked—hopeful? Grace reached out and took her hand, and, a beat later, Tedd did the same with her other hand.

"It  _is_ non-traditional," said Tedd, "But then, since when has anything I've done with relationships been traditional?" He grinned at Grace.

This brought to Sarah's mind an image of Tedd in female form. Which made her realize, for the first time, that she was being asked out on a date not only by more than one person at a time, but one of those people was female. And the other person frequently was. She didn't know what shocked her more—that it was happening, or that she hadn't even registered that particular aspect of it until now.

Sarah smiled at them. "You're just determined to keep pushing my Kinsey number up higher and higher, aren't you?"

"Your what?"

"It's—never mind, I'll explain it later." She squeezed both of their hands, took a deep breath, and said, "Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes, dinner and a movie sounds wonderful."

Grace squealed with delight, and hugged her. After a moment, Grace reached out an arm to pull Tedd into the embrace too. Sarah hugged them both back. Then Grace released them and bounded up from the couch, going to Tedd's computer. "Let's see what's playing this weekend."

With Grace gone, Sarah found herself sitting in a sort of half-hug with Tedd. She looked at him, still smiling at her, and thought,  _He really does look better without those silly glasses on all the time._

Tedd gave her shoulders a squeeze, then stood up also. "So, anyway, now that that's all settled, today I wanted to continue our experiments on how the watches affect different kinds of materials..."

 

 

 


	3. Not Attracted to Boring People

 

"You what?"

Susan's voice was completely deadpan, devoid of inflection, a reaction that, to Sarah's mind, was more troubling than shrieking. Not that Susan ever shrieked.

"You heard me. I've got a date."

"With Grace. And _Tedd_."

"Yes."

Susan stared silently at Sarah for several uncomfortable moments.

They were sitting on the couch in Susan's house the evening of the same day Tedd and Grace had asked Sarah out. Sarah had called Susan after leaving Tedd's house and asked if she could see Susan after dinner. She said she needed to discuss some things that were weighing on her.

Sarah had had dinner with her parents, not really hearing any of the table conversation, then spent a frantic half-hour reading on the internet before heading over to Susan's. Once she got there, she had poured out the details of the past two days' interpersonal activities in a jumble, culminating with the news that Grace and Tedd had asked her out.

"Well," Susan said slowly, "I guess I can see why you said something was troubling you."

"I _didn't_ say 'troubling'. I'm not troubled, I'm just— discombobulated. Out of sorts. Lots of thoughts running through my mind. I alternate between being weirded out by the idea of dating two people at once, and being weirded out by how _little_ I'm actually weirded out. At some level, it just feels natural, feels right, but then the fact that it feels natural feels weird."

"I... almost followed that."

"And, and am I ready to date a woman? Or wo _men_ , depending upon Tedd's mood? Can I handle more than one person at a time? I've barely managed dating one person at a time in the past. It's not like my dating record with Elliot or Sam was that great. And I've known Tedd for years, will this ruin my friendship with him? I mean, Elliot and I managed to break up and stay friendly, but that doesn't necessarily mean Tedd and I could do the same, we're different people. But I probably shouldn't be planning ahead to breaking up before the first date. And how would sex fit into all this? _They're_ sexually active, and if we date long enough, I assume I'll be... involved too." She paused, disconcerted. "I must admit, I never pictured losing my virginity in a three-way."

Susan squeezed her eyes shut and looked pained. "I think I feel a headache coming on."

"Oh, come on, it's not _that_ bad!"

Little Suze, Susan's fairy doll that looked like her, flew into the room from the bathroom, carrying two aspirin tablets. It hovered beside Susan until she opened her eyes again, and then held out the tablets in offering. Susan snorted and held out her hand to let Suze drop them into her palm. "Thank you, Suze." The little fairy doll flashed a smile, then flew back to the bathroom. A moment later, Sarah heard running water, and then Suze returned with a small tumbler filled with water. Sarah was momentarily diverted.

"She really knows what you want, without your saying it?"

"Oh, yes. Sometimes too well." Susan took the tumbler of water and knocked back the aspirin. "It can be annoying, at times. Though admittedly, having an externalized manifestation of my subconscious does make it harder to lie to myself about— things."

Sarah frowned. "Lie to yourself? About what?"

Susan waved this away. "Later. It's... a long story. Right now I want to know how you came to accept a date with— _Tedd._ " She managed to imbue his name with a world of meaning. Flitting about in the air beside her, Suze pantomimed pulling out its hair.

"You don't wonder about me accepting a date with _Grace_?"

Susan rolled her eyes and shook her head. "No."

Sarah waited for her to expand on that, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. "Why not?" she pressed.

"Grace is— Grace. She's so sweet and warm and cuddly and kind, who _wouldn't_ want to date her? Heck, _I'd_ date her, and I'm not even interested in women. Or dating. Mind you, it'd be somewhat like dating a puppy; one false move and you'll have those huge green eyes staring up at you going _'Why?'._ "

Sarah's thoughts flashed back to Grace's reaction when she'd thought Sarah had said she hated her, and winced. That was a too-acute observation.

"And besides, I've seen the way you look at her. So, no, that part is no surprise at all."

"What?" Sarah was taken aback. "How I look at her? What on earth does _that_ mean?"

"It means, my dear Watson, that you are not nearly as subtle as you think you are."

Sarah felt her face begin to flush, and she stammered, "You're not— I'm not— what do you mean?"

"Well, to pick an easily quantifiable example— do you have your little sketchbook with you? The one you draw in at lunch every day?"

"Yeah?"

"You've created little chibi figure drawings of most of your friends."

"Yeah, you've all seen them."

"So, open up your sketchbook right now, and do a count of how many pictures in there are of Grace, Tedd, Elliot, or me, et cetera."

Sarah frowned. "What's your point?"

"I'll bet you five dollars that the number of drawings you've done of Grace outnumbers the rest of us put together."

"So? She's fun to draw. I can do her squirrel-form and no-one thinks it's odd because it's manga-style."

"Really? Is that all?"

"I—" Sarah blushed a little and looked down. "Well... no." Then she looked up at Susan defiantly and said, "But if I _wasn't_ attracted to her, I wouldn't be going out on a date with her."

"Hey, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just pointing out that your attraction isn't a surprise to me. And it might not be a total surprise to other people, either."

"Oh..." Sarah thought of Elliot. "Oh, carp!"

"What?"

"I was wondering how Elliot would react to knowing one of my next relationships after him was with a woman. But also— how will he react to my dating his _best friend?"_

"Oh. Carp indeed."

Sarah flopped back on the couch and stared at the ceiling.

"Speaking of Tedd..." Susan began hesitantly. "I'm... trying to be supportive of your decisions, my... somewhat mixed feelings about Tedd notwithstanding. But. How does he fit into all this? From what you said, he's attracted to you, had a crush on you at one point. You and Grace seem to be attracted to each other. And God knows they're fully into each other. But... what's your attraction to Tedd? Is this an equilateral triangle relationship, or, something more, I dunno, lopsided?

Sarah smiled, still staring at the ceiling. "Actually, it's not as lopsided as you might think."

"What? You mean, you, ah..."

"Find him attractive? Yeah. He's cute. He's not— studly, like Elliot, but he's got his own charm. And I know you think of him as a perv, but he's really quite sweet and caring, once you get to know him. He's grown up a lot, the past few years. I credit Grace for a lot of that." Sarah sat back up to find Susan staring at her, and little Suze sitting on her shoulder with a slack-jawed expression on its face. Sarah giggled. "Oh, come on, it's not _that_ unbelievable. I mean, if he were as bad as all that, would Grace want anything to do with him?"

"I know he's not really... a pervert." Susan pursed her lips and looked off to the side for a moment. "Yes, I've seen him grow up, too, it's just..." She slumped back against the cushions, and Suze fluttered off her shoulder, landing on the coffee table. "I guess my first impressions of him, from years ago, kinda stuck with me and are coloring my judgement. I certainly haven't spent as much time with him recently as you have."

"And he's even cuter as a woman," Sarah pointed out, grinning slyly.

Susan rolled her eyes. "I wasn't even considering that— _aspect_ of the situation. But, since you raised it— do you find Grace in _her_ natural form attractive too?"

Sarah frowned, considering. "Yes... in slightly different ways. She's certainly more cuddly when she's furry."

Susan snorted. "Which is saying something." Grace-the-hugger had challenged Susan's personal space boundaries on more than one occasion. "But... earlier you mentioned sex. Are you ready for sex with a non-human partner?"

Now it was Sarah's turn to stare blankly at Susan. "Uh..." She couldn't believe she hadn't considered that aspect of it. "Human" was a shape-shifted facade for Grace; her natural form had fur and a tail. Surely, loving her meant loving the real her? As Sarah considered it, she was surprised to find her initial reaction was a shiver of thrill. A half-smile crept onto her face as she imagined it, bringing with it echoes of memories of enjoying werewolf fantasy novels.

Susan snorted again. "Okay, never mind, I guess that part of it is copacetic too."

Sarah snapped her attention away from memories and back to Susan. "What?"

"It looks like that part of it is okay with you too." She brushed her hair back out of her face and asked, "What are you looking for from me? Approval?"

"Not... exactly. I mostly just wanted someone to talk to about this, to reassure me I'm not nuts for even considering this."

"Well, leaving aside my somewhat mixed feelings about Tedd, I don't think it's totally out there. You're all consenting adults, and no one is getting hurt, barring the usual broken hearts if/when a break-up occurs."

"I've only agreed to go out on a first date; like I said, I'm not thinking ahead to breaking up!"

"So... anything that works for you all is fine. The fact that a triad doesn't fit into the standard patriarchal model of what relationships 'should' be is just an added bonus, as far as I'm concerned."

"Triad. That's a good term for it. I looked up polygamy online—"

"Polyamory."

"What?"

"What you want to look up is polyamory, not polygamy."

"Uh, yeah, that's what I figured out, half a dozen web sites in. How do _you_ know that?"

"...It may be I spend a little too much time reading OT3 Trek fic."

Sarah laughed. "Yeah, I've read some of those fanfics too. Isn't it amazing how many romantic dramas just disappear if you allow for a, what did you call it, a triad relationship? 'Oh, noes, she must choose between the two dark brooding stud-muffins whom she loves equally!' Screw that, choose both."

Susan smiled wryly. "Well, that seems to be what you're doing."

Sarah shook her head. "I'm not, really; I mean, I didn't go _looking_ for this. I... admit I may have had a bit of an, ah, unrequited crush on Grace, but I mostly ignored it because a) she was already committed to Tedd, and b) she's a woman. And, all joking aside, I don't think of myself as a lesbian. I never even considered myself bisexual, really, until now."

"But you do find Grace _and_ Tedd attractive, in addition to the various men you've dated, so wouldn't that be pretty much the definition of bisexual?"

"Well... _man_ I've dated," Sarah corrected.

Susan waved this aside. "No matter what biological sex Sam was, or rather is, he presents as male."

"Yeah, you're right... I still get pissed at Edward when I think about Sam."

"He almost had an aneurysm when Ashley, Diane, and Charlotte got added to the circle of 'in the know' friends. You can hardly blame him for not wanting to add one more. Especially when he was still running ragged dealing with the Elliot/Cheerleadra debacle."

"Logically, no. But I guess I blame him anyways. A female-to-male transformation watch would have meant _so_ much to Sam. It really sucks to know we have the technology to make such a huge difference in someone's life, and not be able to give it to them."

"Maybe, but if Tedd and Andrea ever get this magical energy clog thing fixed, those watches might not work any more. And poor Sam would be back where he started, with nothing but a heartbreaking memory of what 'might have been.'"

Sarah felt a pang at the thought of that. Not only for Sam; her own peculiar magical ability was dependent upon the abnormal build-up of magical energy around Moperville. She'd tried to cast her time-freeze spell while visiting relatives out-of-state, and she couldn't. If Tedd or Andrea ever "fixed" the magical build-up, she'd be back to having no magic at all.

"I never had the chance to ask... if you don't mind my asking..." Susan began.

"Hmm? Ask what?"

"Did you break up with Sam because he's trans?"

Sarah frowned. "No, of course not. It had nothing to do with sex— or gender. We just, I dunno, had no spark. After four dates, we both agreed that we should just be friends. I still see him at game nights at the comic shop sometimes."

"When did you find out he was trans?"

"I suspected it after the first date. I think hanging out with Tedd has made me more sensitive than most people to sex and gender cues. Sam told me during our third date."

"Ah."

"Did you really think I would break up with Sam over that, after sticking by Elliot for so long during his, uh, gender issues?"

Susan looked a little abashed. Suze hung its head and peered up at Sarah through its bangs. "Sorry. But you must admit, your dating record is starting to look a little— um, unique. One guy who transforms into a woman against his will at random intervals—"

"He's pretty much got that under control now."

"—One guy who's trans; and now a ménage à trois with a woman who's part-squirrel and a man who spends a significant chunk of his time transformed into a woman."

Sarah sighed. "Well, when you put it like that..." She flopped back on her back again, staring up at the ceiling. Suze flew over to hover over her head, looking concerned. Sarah smiled slightly. "I'm fine, really. I guess— I guess I'm just not attracted to... boring people."

Susan laughed. "Well, I think you'll be safe from boredom with Grace and Tedd."

"Too true."

Sarah continued to lay on her back, distracting herself by watching Suze perform loop-the-loops and other acrobatics in the air over her. Eventually she looked up, to see Susan sitting at her end of the couch with her hands folded in her lap and her eyes closed. "Susan?"

"What?" came Susan's voice from Suze.

Sarah yelped. "Holy— are you _in_ Suze? Can you control a fairy doll like Nanase can?"

"Well, I can't _create_ fairy dolls like Nanase can, but I can control the ones she's given me."

"Ones plural? Can you do more than one at a time?" In response, there were a few _pops_ of displaced air as little Nase, little Gracie and little Teddy, Susan's other fairy dolls, materialized in the air over Sarah. They hovered in place.

"I can 'inhabit' one at a time," continued Susan's voice from Suze, "but the other ones will, I don't know, coordinate? Work in synchrony? If I try to pick up something too heavy for one fairy doll to carry, one or more of the others will assist, but they mostly just sorta' hang around, unless I—"

Suddenly Susan's voice was coming from little Nase "—switch my attention to another doll."

Sarah sat up and stared at the dolls now flying around over the coffee table. "That is _so_ cool." She studied the dolls, and said "Huh."

"What?"

"I'm— not sure what it is, but... Nase looks more 'alive' than the other three. I think... her motions are more fluid, more human? Can you switch to Teddy?"

"I've... never inhabited Teddy."

"Eh? Why not?"

"I'm just not comfortable with the idea of being in a male body. Especially Tedd's body."

"It's not Tedd's body, it's a fairy doll that looks like Tedd." She tilted her head and frowned. "Wait a minute, are you telling me that the fairy dolls are, um, anatomically correct?"

"Oh, yes," came the reply from Little Nase, sounding slightly aggrieved.

"And... you said they respond to your desires, conscious or sub-conscious?"

"Don't go there, Sarah," said Susan warningly.

"I— " Sarah bit her tongue. Susan was her friend, and she was an intensely private person. If she didn't want Sarah exploring the implications of what she'd just revealed, she'd leave it alone.

For now.

"Okay. But, can you switch to Gracie? I want to see if the difference is still apparent." Susan didn't say anything, but suddenly Gracie's body language shifted, loosened up a little, at the same time as Nase became more stiff. "Wow. That is really cool."

"I've never watched it from outside, perhaps obviously. I'd never realized that the difference was that evident."

"It's not a huge difference, but it's apparent if I'm looking for it." Sarah reached for her bag. "You want me to get a video of it for you?"

"Not right now." Susan's eyes opened, and the fairy dolls settled down on the coffee table. They all four collapsed together in a puppy pile on top of one another, all limbs and wings and tails. Susan frowned at them. "Come on, guys, don't be that way." The dolls looked up at her, slight smiles on their faces, but they didn't move from where they were. Susan sighed.

"Uh..." Sarah was fascinated by the dolls' behavior when not explicitly controlled by Susan. Susan gave her a flat look. "Right, right. Not going there." Still, watching little Teddy and Gracie lying on top of one another with the other two dolls gave her pause.

"You said you did some research on polyamory?" Susan changed the subject.

"What? Oh, yeah. Mostly I was just looking for some reassurance that it wasn't totally whacked out or, or wrong, but I also found some interesting ideas, and resources for further reading."

"What kind of ideas, dare I ask?"

"Not _those_ kinds of ideas. More like, how with more than two people involved in a relationship, communication and honesty become even more important. There are so many ways to mix things up if everyone involved just assumes someone else is thinking about something a certain way; you— we— need to talk things out more than a 'normal' couple would."

Susan nodded. The fairy dolls were all watching Sarah with an intensity that was slightly unnerving. "That makes sense. With two people, you have two-way communication, back and forth between each partner. But with three people, it would increase to six-way communication, if you look at all the combinations."

Sarah blinked. "I hadn't done the math. But, yeah." She stared at little Gracie and Teddy. "If this does go beyond a first date, we'll... have a _lot_ to talk about."

 

 


	4. A Surprise for All of Us

Sarah somehow managed to get through Thursday working with Grace and Tedd without dying of nerves, although she had an attack of butterflies whenever she thought about Friday evening. She even managed to get some more sketches of Grace done in the morning, limiting the poses to a maximum of five minutes at a time. Grace provided her with a variety of subjects: male, female, young, old, skinny, fat, and multiple ethnicities.

In the afternoon Tedd ran them through a few experimental transformations that made no sense to Sarah— when would anyone need to have hands ten percent larger or smaller without changing their bodies to match? Ditto feet? But when Sarah asked her about it, Tedd just rambled off some techno-babble worthy of a poorly written episode of Star Trek. Obviously she was learning something from the experiments, but both the experiments and the results were getting more esoteric as Tedd tried to explore the finer details of her theories.

As Sarah was getting ready to leave for the day, Grace suggested that she not come over to work on Friday, so that the date would feel "more special", not just a continuation of the day. Tedd seconded the idea, and Sarah, nerves jangling, went along. She agreed with the basic sentiment, but she also dreaded the idea of having a whole day alone to get nervous about the date. She would have much rather been distracted by working with them.

Sarah packed up her art supplies and was just about to put on her coat when Grace grabbed her for a good-bye hug, as was her wont. "I can't wait to see you tomorrow night! We're going to have so much fun!"

Sarah smiled at Grace's enthusiasm. "Yes, I hope so. Where are we going for dinner, by the way?"

"Oh! Teddy thought we should have dinner here. She loves to cook, and that way we can talk about... _things_ without worrying about other people overhearing us." Sarah wasn't sure if "things" meant transformations, magic, or polyamorous relationships, but it sounded like a good idea, except—

"Uh, is Edward going to be joining us for dinner?"

"Hah. No, Dad is in Poughkeepsie for a few more days," Tedd said. "Some sort of international summit on reciprocity in magical law enforcement. He keeps warning us he'll be totally bald from pulling his hair out by the time he gets home."

Sarah snorted. "Better him than me. What are you making for dinner?"

Tedd smiled. "It's a surprise. Don't worry, I know what you don't or can't eat."

Grace unhelpfully put in "It's a surprise for all of us; she's still trying to decide on a menu."

"Grace!"

Sarah laughed. "I'm sure it'll be wonderful, whatever it is. And if it isn't, well, that just leaves more room for popcorn at the movies."

Tedd surprised her by pulling her into a goodbye hug; she was used to it from Grace, but not Tedd. "See you tomorrow at six?"

Sarah hugged Tedd back, then put on her coat. "See you then."

* * *

Sarah was just about to get ready for bed when she remembered she hadn't fed Brownie, the Dunkel's cat, that evening. She groaned, and considered just waiting until the next morning. But she wanted to sleep in tomorrow, which would make it over 24 hours between feedings, and that just wasn't fair to the poor cat.

Brownie began yowling at the door as soon as she heard Sarah's key in the lock. Sarah let herself in and flipped on the lights. Brownie stalked over to her empty food dish and sat down, looking up at her with a look of feline disgust. "Give it a rest, Brownie; I'm not _that_ late." Sarah rinsed out the empty bowl, then filled it with a half a can of cat food. She set it on the floor where Brownie sniffed at it, then looked up at her as if to say "Really? _This_ again?"

"Sorry, cat, that's what they left for you. Take it up with the management when they get back." Brownie eyed her for a moment longer, as if waiting to see if something more appetizing was forthcoming, then she dug into the food with her usual enthusiasm. Sarah took off her coat, cleaned and refilled Brownie's water bowl, then tended to the less pleasant task of cleaning the litter box.

She was washing her hands when Brownie finished eating. She twined around Sarah's legs, purring, and Sarah laughed and picked her up. "You love anyone who feeds you, don't you?" Sarah usually spent a few minutes hanging out and petting Brownie, since she felt sorry for her being alone all day. She carried Brownie into the livingroom and sat down on the couch, draping the cat across her lap. Brownie stood up, kneaded her paws into Sarah's lap a few times, then sat back down again. Sarah scratched her behind the ears, and Brownie closed her eyes and purred.

The texture of Brownie's fur reminded Sarah of Grace, and all the nervous tension she'd been trying to repress all day bubbled up again. "Oh, fudge, Brownie, what am I doing? Is this the right thing to do? They _claim_ they like me, but what if they're just being nice? Or what if they get to know me better and then they don't like me anymore? I'm not sure which would bother me more— if things progressed to the next level, or if it all just ended."

"They who?"

Sarah screamed and flinched; Brownie launched herself out of her lap and sprinted from the room, leaving a set of pinprick claw-holes in Sarah's legs. Sarah jumped up and whirled, to find Elliot standing in the doorway to the mudroom leading to the back door.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Sarah shouted.

"Uh, I live here?"

Sarah glowered at him. "You know what I mean. You're supposed to be in— I don't know, in Butt-fuck Idaho or something with your family. What the... _frak_ are you doing _here_?"

Elliot looked embarrassed. "Well, actually, as far as my parents know, I'm still there with them. And Ellen. But, I, uh... well, I flew home for a few hours."

Right. Her ex was a part-time super-hero who could fly. Why shouldn't he pop home for a quick visit?

Or rather, why _would_ he?

"Did you miss Brownie that much?" she asked drily.

"Uh, no, not Brownie." His blush deepened, confirming her suspicions.

"Oh. So this is a booty call?"

"Sarah!"

"What? Am I wrong? I assume Ashley's going to be showing up at any minute."

Elliot grimaced and looked away. "No. You're not wrong," he muttered.

Sarah stood up and headed for the kitchen, not looking at Elliot. "Right. Well, I just fed Brownie, so don't let her convince you she's being starved to death. Will you be here in the morning to feed her, or will you be slipping out in the middle of the night?"

"Sarah..."

"Oh, right, 'just a few hours'. So I'll be back in the morning to feed her. Have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

" _Sarah_..."

" _What?"_ She spun on him. "I'm not your girlfriend any more, you don't have to explain yourself to me. Have fun. I'll see you Monday, or, or, whenever you pop back in again." She turned back to the kitchen, and grabbed her coat.

"Wait, Sarah." He sounded so concerned. She sighed and turned back to him, while still buttoning up her coat. "You... sounded worried, talking with Brownie. Is something wrong? Is there anything I can help you with? _"_

 _The heck of it is_ , she reflected, _he really means it. He's such a good person at heart._ "No, nothing's wrong, I'm just nervous."

"About what? And who are 'they'?"

Sarah wrestled with her conscience for a moment. She knew she really shouldn't just drop this bombshell on him and leave, but... she wasn't a perfect person. She _was_ a little bit jealous of Ashley. _So what the heck._ She opened the door, and turned back to Elliot.

"I'm just a little nervous about a date I have tomorrow night."

Elliot brightened. "You have a date? Great! I'm so glad for you. Who's it with?"

Sarah grinned impishly. "With Tedd and Grace." She enjoyed his expression of shock and confusion for a moment, then turned and walked out the door.

"Za?" she heard him say weakly as she left.

She began giggling to herself, and she bumped into Ashley on the sidewalk leading up to the house. "Oh, hey, Ashley, Elliot's inside. I just came over to feed Brownie, didn't know you guys were going to be here. Have a great evening!"

"Oh, um, hi?..." Ashley's voice trailed off as Sarah darted off down the sidewalk, laughing out loud as she went.

 

 

 

 


	5. Dinner. And Andrea's Fudge Cake.

It took Sarah a while to fall asleep that night; imagined scenes of what Elliot and Ashley were up to kept bubbling up unbidden from her subconscious, tormenting her with both arousal and jealousy. _He's not my boyfriend anymore; what they do is their own darn business._ Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit hurt,  knowing that Ashley's relationship with Elliot had progressed to a sexual level after mere months (or was it weeks?) of dating, whereas hers never had, even after many months.

 _Frak it. I've got suitors of my own, who think I'm pretty._ She giggled to herself a little at the word. _"Suitors." What a term for it._ She deliberately directed her thoughts away from Elliot and Ashley, and towards Tedd and Grace. _I wonder what they're up to tonight? Maybe they're doing the same things as Ell—No, I'm not thinking about Elliot, I'm thinking about Tedd and Grace._

She tried to picture her two "suitors" naked and together. She'd spent hours staring at naked Grace, of course. She'd seen Tedd naked at various times due to transformation mishaps, though she'd never seen him aroused. _I wonder what he's like?_ She'd tried to avoid overtly staring at his crotch during those occasions the mishaps occurred while he was male, but she still had an impression of a nice looking penis, nestled in a soft bush of purple pubic hair. _Do they make love transformed? In what combinations?_ Tedd spent a significant portion of his time female; surely that applied to the bedroom, too? She recalled how grateful he'd been to learn the term "gender fluid"; if ever there was a person that term was developed for, it was Tedd.

She pushed away thoughts of all the various gender combinations that could occur, and focused on "basic" Tedd and Grace, as she saw them every day at school. She felt her nipples hardening as she imagined them together, and she slipped her hand into her pajama pants as she pictured their activities in more detail. All thoughts of Elliot and Ashley vanished as she inserted herself into the imagined scene.

 _Mmmmm... that mellows me out pretty well too,_ she thought a while later, as she drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Sarah slept in the next morning, but a guilty conscience about Brownie kept her from sleeping _too_ late. She was back at the Dunkel house before noon.

"Hello? Anyone home?" she called out as she went in. Brownie looked at her like she was crazy. _Why are you shouting at the house when you could be busy feeding me?_ Sarah imagined her saying.

There was no response to her call, so she went to the kitchen, Brownie yowling at her as they went. There was a note taped to the stack of cat food cans on the counter.

_Sarah, I hope you have a Good Date tonight. Maybe we can Talk sometime when I get back? —E_

"Humph. I guess he believed me after all," she told Brownie. It had occurred to her after she got home last night that he might have thought she was joking, or was referring to simply hanging out with friends. She folded the note and stuffed it into her pocket. As she washed out Brownie's food dish, another thought occurred to her. _Or maybe he just called Tedd and asked?_ It would be a logical thing to do; Tedd was his best friend, he'd undoubtedly want to talk with him about it.

She gave Brownie her food and water, and cleaned the litter box. Then she plopped down on the couch, waiting for Brownie to finish eating so she could cuddle her for a while. She stared at the staircase to the upstairs, drumming her fingers nervously on her knee. _There's no good reason for me to go up there. Besides, what would I see? I'm sure they didn't destroy any furniture in their passion, or leave underwear or used condoms draped all over the place. Nothing there to see.  
_

Brownie hopped into her lap, and she shook herself, banishing the voyeuristic impulse. Brownie kneaded her lap before settling in. "No claws this time, cat," she said warningly, as she began scratching her behind the ears. Brownie purred her usual response.

"Okay, Brownie, so this takes care of a half an hour. What do I do with the next six in order to not go bonkers with anticipation?" Brownie continued purring. "No, I don't think I can pet you for six hours."

Cleaning Brownie's litter box reminded her that she was behind on her own household chores. When she got home she killed an hour folding laundry, taking out trash, and cleaning "her" bathroom, the one she used to share with Carol before she moved out. As she was cleaning the porcelain, she moved aside a box of tampons that were sitting on the back of the toilet, then paused, frowning.

 _Fudge. My period should have started this week. Am I getting irregular again?_ She swiped the top of the toilet tank and set the box back down, making a mental note to make sure she still had a couple of tampons in her purse tonight, just in case. 

After that, she managed to occupy herself for a few hours with sketching, then watched some TV, not really seeing what was on the screen. Eventually, she ended up back up in her room, looking at her wardrobe.

She spent far longer than she expected to dithering over an outfit for the evening. _It's just a movie, nothing formal. But even though they know me, I want to look a_ little _special._ She kept pulling things out of her closet and drawers, then tossing them aside. _Too fancy, too casual, too garish, too dressy..._

"Arrgggh!" She stared at the pile of clothes on her bed. _I don't know how formal dinner is supposed to be._ Then a line from an article she'd read popped into mind: _Open, frequent, and honest communication is a crucial key to maintaining a healthy relationship of any sort, but this is especially true when there are more than two partners involved._

 _Fudge. Just_ ask _them, dummy._ She picked up her phone, took a deep breath, and dialed Grace's number.

"Hey, Sarah!"

"Hi, Grace."

"What's up?"

"I was just wondering, if this isn't too stupid a question—how formal is dinner going to be? I'm trying to decide what to wear."

"Oh! That's not a stupid question, but I hadn't thought about it either. I mean, we're going to the movies afterwards, which doesn't need dressy clothes, but... I'd like to look nice for you. And Tedd."

"Sorta' my thought."

"Let me ask Tedd if she had any plans." Grace apparently put her hand over the microphone; Sarah listened to a muffled conversation for a half a minute, then Grace came back on. "Tedd said she's going to wear black slacks and her blue-and-purple batik shirt."

"The one that looks like it ought to clash with his hair, but somehow doesn't?"

"That's the one. I think I'll go with my green cowl-neck sweater and, um, a long black skirt."

"Okay, thanks, that gives me some ideas."

"So, what will you be wearing?"

Sarah stared at the pile on her bed, then glanced in the open dresser drawers. "A sweater sounds nice; this 'spring break' hasn't been very springy, has it? Maybe my rose-colored sweater, and a floral print skirt?"

"Sounds loverly! I can't wait to see you in it."

"See you in an hour."

"Bye!"

Sarah hung up, then stared at the pile on her bed again. She sighed. "Where're the house elves when you really need them?" Then she started putting things back where they came from.

Fifteen minutes later, she was left with just the decided-upon sweater and skirt on her bed. She skinned out of her jeans and t-shirt, then paused to look at her underwear. Plain, white, boring, safe. _I'm not going to be getting naked tonight; it's only the first... dinner. But still..._ Hesitantly, she dug into the back of her underwear drawer to pull out a lacy red set of bra and panties that she'd bought months ago, then never felt she had occasion to wear. _I don't care if they don't see them,_ I'll _know I'm wearing them._ She changed into the fancy underwear.

She stared at herself in the mirror for a few minutes, trying to imagine Grace and Tedd seeing her like this. _Would they like what they see?_ Her cheeks flushed as she imagined their gazes lingering on her body, tracing her contours with their eyes, seeing hints of her bush and areola through the sheer lacy fabric. Her nipples poked up through the thin fabric of the bra. _Do they_ really _think I'm sexy?_ The pretty lingerie certainly helped her _feel_ a bit more sexy, which she counted as a win.

She pulled on the sweater and skirt, found some stockings that matched well enough, and slipped into her black flats. A quick brush of blush and a lipstick that coordinated with the sweater, a rose-colored headband, and she felt ready.

 _Well, physically ready, anyway._ She tried to quell her nerves by reminding herself that she'd gone out to lots of movies with Tedd and Grace. This was only a little different.

_Sure. Keep telling yourself that._

She looked at the clock—5:30, just enough time to feed Brownie on her way over to Tedd and Grace's house. She ran downstairs and grabbed her coat. "Bye, Mom! I'll be home by midnight."

Her mother looked up from her laptop at the kitchen table, where she was working on something. "Where are you going again?"

Sarah sighed. "I'm going to catch a bite to eat and then see a movie with Tedd and Grace, remember?"

"Oh. Right. You look lovely, dear. Are you meeting someone else tonight?"

Sarah cursed to herself. She had hoped she could escape without her mother noticing that she was a little more dressed up than usual for a night at the movies. "No, no-one else; I just felt like wearing something other than jeans for a change," she said honestly, if not completely.

"Well, have fun. See you tomorrow."

"G'night, Mom. Love you."

"Love you too, Sarah-bear."

 

* * *

 

With Brownie fed and petted, Sarah ended up on Tedd and Grace's doorstep a few minutes before six. Her heart was in her mouth as she worked up the courage to push the doorbell, but this time at least she managed to actually ring it before Grace opened the door. But she opened the door so quickly she might well have been lying in wait for her. _Or she just leapt for the door that fast,_ Sarah thought. Grace could move faster than the average human when she wanted to.

"Hi, Grace." Sarah smiled as she stepped into the house. She dropped her purse on the entryway table.

"Hi, Sarah." Grace's smile, such normal part of her countenance, seemed brighter than usual, but also a bit nervous.

Sarah took off her coat and Grace took it from her, saying, "Here, let me," and she hung it up in the hall closet. Sarah was a bit startled; she normally just hung it on a doorknob or draped it over a chair. After hanging it up, Grace turned to Sarah and paused, crossing and then uncrossing her arms across her chest, as if uncertain what to do with them.

"It's nice to see someone other than me looking nervous," Sarah said with a wry smile.

Grace gave her a half-smile. "Nervous? Well... yes, I guess I am. I want this evening to go well."

"Well, it certainly _smells_ wonderful." Deciding to take the initiative, she reached out and pulled Grace into a hug. Grace's shoulders perceptibly relaxed under her hands, and she rested her head on Sarah's shoulder for a moment. Grace's sweater wasn't as soft as her natural fur, but it still felt good under Sarah's hands, and Grace smelled wonderful as always.

"It seems silly to be nervous; it's just dinner and a movie," Grace said into Sarah's hair.

Sarah laughed, and felt her own shoulders relax a bit. "I've been telling myself the same thing all day, but it hasn't seemed to have made much of a difference. I'm still a bundle of nerves."

"What are you two talking about out there?" came Tedd's female voice from the kitchen. Sarah and Grace released each other, and paused a moment holding hands, to smile at each other.

"Nerves," called Sarah, as they dropped hands and turned to go into the kitchen.

"Nerves? What have you got to be nervous about? It's only dinner and a movie." Sarah and Grace both laughed as they entered the kitchen, and Tedd joined in their laughter.

"That's what we both said, pretty much exactly," Sarah said. "Hi, Tedd."

"Hey, Sarah." Tedd was female, in the promised black slacks and blue-and-purple shirt, with an apron over top to protect her nice outfit. She had a sauce-covered spatula in her hand, so Sarah refrained from hugging her just yet.

"Looking good Tedd. Still clinging to the stereotype that you cook better when female, I see?"

"Hey, it's not a stereotype if it works. And it works for me." She turned back to the stove and gently stirred the contents of the skillet.

"You know, my dad does most of the cooking at our house, and last I checked, he's male."

"Well, that may work for him, but, trust me, you'll enjoy dinner better tonight for me cooking it this way. Don't worry, I'll revert to male before we eat."

"I wasn't worried; you're you, whatever sex you are."

Tedd looked up at her and cocked her head, studying her for a moment. "You really mean that."

"Uh... yes? Who else would you be?"

"I... sometimes..." Tedd shook her head, and turned back to the stove. "Let me finish this up, and we can talk over dinner."

"It smells wonderful. Is that chicken Marsala?"

"Yup. On a bed of risotto, with lemon-butter broccoli and a fresh fruit salad."

"And wait till you see what she's made for dessert," Grace put in.

Sarah's mouth started watering, and she was suddenly glad she'd been too nervous to eat more than a light lunch. Glancing around, she was surprised to see the small table in the dining nook set with a table cloth and as-yet unlit candles.

Grace noticed her looking at the table and said "Do you like the table cloth? I found it at Pier One a few months ago, and we haven't had a chance to use it until now." It was tan, with intricate gold and brown geometric patterns around the perimeter. There were matching napkins set by the plates.

"It's beautiful. But you didn't have to go to all that trouble for me."

"Well, it _is_ a date. Dates should be a little special."

Sarah's mouth suddenly stopped watering and went dry. _Date_. That was the word she'd been avoiding in her thoughts all day, referring to the evening instead as "dinner and a movie". She tried to distract herself by offering, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You can tell me what you want to drink with dinner," Grace said. "We've got water, milk, lemon fizzy water, and the usual assortment of sodas."

"Plus the Marsala I used in the chicken, but, trust me, I think it's better left for cooking with," Tedd put in. 

Sarah laughed. "No wine, thanks. The fizzy water sounds good." She noticed the partially empty wine bottle sitting by the stove and asked "Don't you worry that Edward will think you've been drinking while he's gone?"

"Nah. He bought the Marsala for me to cook with, and it's not like we've emptied the bottle."

"I had a sip," Grace confided as she poured out drinks. "I didn't really like it. It's much tastier in the sauce."

Sarah was momentarily distracted by a vision of Grace drunk; the thought of what the already uninhibited young woman might do under the influence was... arresting. She mentally shook her head and turned back to watch Tedd at work.

Tedd was deftly plating their food, the various components quickly coming together to create an appetizing whole. A minute later, she was taking off her apron as Grace carried two plates to the table; Tedd grabbed the third. Grace put down the plates and lit the candles.

Tedd turned off the kitchen lights and dimmed the lights in the dining nook, creating an intimate atmosphere. He turned to Sarah ( _When did he transform? I didn't even notice it!)_ and pulled out the middle seat, gesturing to it with a little bow. "Madame? Dinner is served," he said with an atrocious faux-French accent.

Sarah laughed and sat down, scooting in as Tedd pushed her chair in for her. He then went to Sarah's left and pulled out Grace's chair for her. She smiled up at him as she sat. He then sat down on Sarah's right.

Sarah was happy to find that the food tasted as good as it smelled. "Tedd, this is wonderful."

"Grace helped, too."

Grace scoffed. "I just chopped veggies. Tedd did all the rest."

"Well, thank you both." They dug in to their dinners, and for a few moments they enjoyed the food in companionable silence.

"So..." Sarah broke the silence hesitantly. "I've been reading..." She stopped, not sure how to broach the subject.

"Reading what?" Grace prompted, after a moment.

Sarah poked at her risotto with her fork, moving it around on her plate. It was delicious, but the portions Tedd had provided were overly generous. "I was reading up on... um, polyamory. That's the term for when three or more people are involved in a relationship." She looked up to see them both watching her intently. Tedd and Grace both nodded, and Sarah wondered if she was the last person in the world to learn the word. She shrugged that off and tried to maintain her momentum. "There are a lot of different approaches; but one thing I got out of all my reading was that there isn't a right or wrong way to do it, as long as everyone involved is happy with the way it works."

"Well, happiness seems like a worthwhile goal," Tedd said.

"But sometimes easier said than done," Grace added thoughtfully. "I—well, I've been researching the topic too." She smiled at Sarah, and Sarah smiled back.

"It's one way to deal with the nerves," Sarah agreed. "Learn as much as possible about what I'm getting into. Especially since it's not something I'd ever really considered before. At _all_."

Grace nodded. "Me neither. I mean, I know you all consider my standards for what constitutes normal social behavior to be a bit, uh, _non_ -standard, but I've watched enough TV and movies to get the message that 'twoo wuv' only exists between two people, usually a man and a woman."

"Though that last part is slowly changing. Thankfully," Tedd put in.

"What did you get out of your reading," Grace asked, as she started in on her fruit. 

"Well, a little reassured, a little confused. Reassured that it's not unheard of, just not talked about much. Confused because it seems like everyone who does it, does it slightly differently. About the only common thread I kept seeing over and over was communicate, communicate, _communicate_. There are a lot more ways for things to go wrong when making assumptions when three people are involved with each other. Partners have to keep talking and not assume the other two are thinking about things the same way."

Tedd nodded. "Three people means six-way communications, not three-way."

Sarah laughed. "That's pretty much what Susan said. Guess I shouldn't be surprised you've done the math too."

Sarah noticed Grace's eyes flicking back and forth between herself and Tedd, frowning slightly. Then she perked up and said, "Oh! Six, yes, I've got it. And... with four people, it would be twelve ways."

Sarah felt a brief flash of panic. "Not that you're considering adding a fourth, right?" Tedd also looked slightly wide-eyed.

Grace laughed. "No, no, no, no, just working the math. Besides, we haven't even formally added a third, yet."

Sarah looked down at her plate, feeling a brief stab of fear, that they might not _want_ to add her. It surprised her, how easily she had already begun slipping into thinking of herself as part of this group, this triad. Even though, as Tedd had said, dates were for trying to decide what they were going to do, longer-term. She took another bite of chicken.

"Sarah?" Grace's voice was gentle. Sarah looked up to find the two of them looking at her. "You okay?"

Sarah swallowed and tried to smile. "Sure."  _Communicate, dammit._ "I—I was just surprised at, well..." She looked at them, her gaze flicking from one to the other, then back. She bit her lip and choked down a nervous giggle. "Sorry. Sorry. One unanticipated problem with three-way relationships is I don't know who to focus on when talking."

"Well, you seemed to be reacting to something I said, so focus on me. Tedd can still hear."

Sarah said, "But I don't want him to feel left out." She reached out her hand to Tedd, and he took it, resting their joined hands on the table.

"Don't sweat it," he said. "I'm happy to watch." Both Sarah and Grace gave him wide-eyed looks. "Uh, I, that is, I mean—" he floundered, then gave up as both women burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, you know what I meant."

"Yes, sweetie, we do. And you may get _more_ occasions to watch in the future, too," Grace said playfully. Sarah's breath caught at the light flirtation. Grace turned her attention back to Sarah.

"So..." said Grace. "You were saying?"

"Oh. Right. It was just that, when you said you haven't formally added a third person yet, I felt... disappointed." She shook her head, then admitted, "Scared."

"Scared?"

"That you might not  _want_ to. Add me. To the, the, triad."

"Well, we wouldn't all be here if it wasn't a strong possibility," Grace said.

"Triad. I like that term," Tedd put in.

"Possibility. Right." Sarah shook herself mentally, then let go of Tedd's hand and picked up her fork to resume poking at her food, trying to distract herself.

" _Strong_ possibility," Grace corrected. Sarah looked up from her broccoli to see Grace smiling encouragingly at her. She smiled back, and relaxed a little. Which made her chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just realizing—I feel like I'm on an emotional roller-coaster today; I keep going from tense to relaxed, to tense, to relaxed. Over and over."

"Well, I hope 'relaxed' wins out in the end," Tedd said. "And, speaking of 'ends', are you ready for dessert?"

Sarah set down her fork. "I hope you don't mind, but, yes; it was all delicious, but the portions were so big I can't finish it all."

"Oh, so you don't have room for chocolate cake?" Grace asked innocently.

"I didn't say _that!"_  

"Sorry about the excess food," Tedd said. "Grace's metabolism is higher than normal, so I'm used to serving up large portions." Sarah noticed that both of their plates were empty.

Sarah stood up and took her plate over to the sink, and for a few minutes the three of them were caught up in the mundanities of putting left-overs in the fridge and loading the dishwasher. She'd eaten at the Verres house often enough that she knew where everything went. Sarah paused a moment with a plate in hand, looking at Grace scrubbing out the skillet, Tedd pulling a carton of cream out of the fridge, and enjoyed the moment of domestic tranquility.  _I could get used to this,_ she thought. 

"What's for dessert?" she asked, as Tedd poured the cream into a whipped cream canister and attached the CO2 cartridge.

"Oddly enough, even though it has nothing to do with griffins, it's called Andrea's Fudge Cake. And I made a raspberry coulis to go with it, along with some fresh raspberries, and whipped cream." Sarah swallowed.

"Looks delicious."

Sarah thought Tedd was reacting to her earlier comment about over-large portions when he cut her what looked to be a small slice. But as she took her first bite, she realized it was so dense and rich, that that slim slice was sufficient. She suppressed a sensual moan as she let the mixture of chocolate, whipped cream, and raspberry melt in her mouth. 

"Okay, if you need to be female to bake like this, I don't know why you'd ever switch back to being male. My goodness, this is delicious." Tedd looked smugly pleased. They were all reverently silent for a few minutes as they finished off their desserts, focused on the food, not conversation. Cake finished, Sarah ran her finger around the edge of the plate, licking the last of the raspberry coulis off her finger.  

"Oh, my. I may have to ask you to marry me," Sarah sighed when it was all gone. Tedd and Grace both laughed. 

"Maybe get past the first date, first?" Grace said.

"If you insist. But that cake was practically a proposition all on its own."

"Well, I wanted to make a good impression," Tedd said. He was smiling as he said it, but Sarah thought she heard a slight edge of uncertainty in his voice.

"Hunh. So I take it Grace and I weren't the only ones a bit nervous about tonight?" She looked into his eyes and smiled as he blushed a little.

"Perhaps a bit," he admitted.

"Well, you certainly made a good impression on my taste buds. _And_ the rest of me."

"The way to a woman's heart is through her stomach?" said Grace.

"This woman, anyway."

In one of those string-of-thoughts that made Sarah question herself sometimes, the mention of hearts and stomachs made her think of her AP Bio class, which in turn brought her thoughts to a topic on most high school seniors' minds. "Have either of you heard from any colleges yet?"

Grace perked up. "We just found out—Tedd and I both got admitted to MIT!"

"What? Why didn't you say something sooner? Congratulations you guys! That's amazing!"

Tedd grimaced. "Not necessarily."

Sarah frowned at this lackluster response. "What do you mean?"

"Tedd's afraid his father pulled some strings to get him admitted; MIT is one of only two universities in the country that have alien and magical technology courses of study."

Sarah was momentarily diverted by this revelation. "Really? What's the other?"

"Eastern New Mexico U, in Roswell."

"Of course." She dragged her attention back to the somber looking Tedd. "Tedd, you're one of the smartest people I know. Why on earth would you think you wouldn't get admitted on your own?"

Tedd shrugged. "I didn't fill out a standard application. I mean, they took my common app, but there was also a special application for my magical research and activities. My regular app doesn't have much in the way of extracurriculars that I can list without violating several security regulations."

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, I had a problem with that too—the only activities I could list for last summer included a vague 'independent study' working with you, and volunteering at the food pantry. But just because you filled out a non-standard app doesn't mean you don't deserve to get in. In fact, listening to your father, or William, or Andrea, I get the impression they think you're something of a savant when it comes to magical tech."

"That's what I tried to tell him," Grace said, "But he doesn't believe me."

Sarah stared at the gloomy looking Tedd. "Tedd." She waited until he looked up at her. "Are roses beautiful?"

It took him a second, but then his mouth quirked in a half smile. "I'm not sure that analogy works, here."

"Actually, it kinda' does," said Grace. "You may not have as strong a standard application as a regular MIT student, but I bet you've got a _brilliantly_ strong application for a non-standard, magical MIT student."

"You'll probably have the magic and alien tech professors fighting to get you to work with them in their labs," Sarah added.

Tedd shrugged. "Well, a couple of them have asked."

"What?" Grace sat up straighter. "You didn't tell me that! That's amazing. And it proves our point."

Tedd smiled a little. "You really think so?"

Grace picked up his hand from across the table and leaned forward to raise it to her mouth and kiss his knuckles. "Yes. I know so."

Sarah watched this with some slight discomfort, feeling like an outsider, then she mentally shook herself. _You're here to see if maybe you fit in as an insider._ She reached out a hand and brushed his hair back from his face, enjoying its fine texture, and she left her hand on his cheek a moment as she added "Me too."

Tedd looked momentarily startled by her intimate touch, then he smiled. He turned his head slightly towards her and lightly kissed the palm of her hand, sending a shiver down Sarah's spine. "Well, who am I to argue with two such perceptive women?"

They all three sat there a moment, smiling at each other, then Grace said to Sarah, "So, what are you doing next year? Any word from any schools yet?"

"Ugh. A few rejections, which were no surprise, still waiting to hear from three, and two acceptances; if I don't get any other acceptances I'll have to decide which one I want to go to. Either way, I think I may defer enrollment a year, do a year of community college here to get some of the basic pre-reqs out of the way at a lower cost."

"Really? We're thinking of deferring a year too."

Tedd nodded. "There's just so much going on here, magically speaking; it seems silly to leave a hot-bed of magical energy and activity to study elsewhere."

"What would you be doing, Grace? Working with Tedd?"

"Oh, some. I got admitted as a special alien student, but I know my basic education is spotty, owing to my upbringing. While he's working in the lab, I'll be at the community college too, trying fill in some gaps."

"Cool! Maybe we'll have some classes together, or at least can car-pool to campus."

She hesitated a moment, reminded herself, _communicate_ , and said "I'd been worrying that if I... we... if we formed a, uh, triad, that it would all be over in the fall, when we all went off to college. I'm glad there's a chance that, um, things could go on for longer before any... hard decisions would have to be made." She looked down and shook her head, then looked back up at them, a wry smile on her face. "Honestly, I _was_ planning on waiting until after the first date to worry about break-ups."

Grace stared at her empty dessert plate, frowning. "I... intellectually, I know people go different ways when they head off to college, but..."

"Sweetie, like I said, I'm trying to at least get through one date before thinking about breaking up."

Grace smiled uncertainly. "I know, but... whether we do or don't keep on dating, become a triad, at some point you and Elliot and Susan and Ellen and Nanase and Justin will all head off in different directions. I _hate_ the thought of not being able to see all of you whenever I want to."

Sarah looked at Tedd, who was watching Grace, a look of sympathy on his face. He reached out across the table and held Grace's hand, and Sarah took her other hand.

"Grace..." he said hesitantly. "I can't predict the future, can't know who will be with who long term, but right now, I know _I_ belong with _you_." Grace looked up and smiled at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "Having lived through my parents' divorce, it's... hard for me to say _forever_. And I know that, statistically speaking, most high school romances don't last long. But. Right here, right now, you feel like _you_... belong in my life forever."

Grace let go of Sarah's hand and stood up, pulling Tedd up into an fervent embrace. Watching the two of them hug, Sarah smiled fondly; oddly, this time she didn't feel like an outsider.

Grace let go of Tedd and wiped at her eyes, still smiling. "Ack. Look at me. This is hardly any way to convince Sarah to join us in a relationship." Tedd glanced at Sarah, looking slightly concerned.

Sarah laughed gently. "Actually, it is. It reassures me that you two are solid. Like I said when you first asked me out, I don't want to risk coming between you. I don't think that's possible, so that's one obstacle to _our_ relationship out of the way." Grace perked up a little more at this comment. "It sounds like we'll have at least a year and a half to try being together. If we're still together at the end of that time, well... there are a _lot_ of colleges on the east coast; maybe I can get into a school out there." _What's another twenty thousand in student loan debt?_  she thought wryly.

Grace's smile widened. "Are you saying you _want_ to be in a relationship with us?"

Sarah's heart was suddenly pounding hard enough for her to feel it in her chest, but she smiled up at them and said, "Well, if you'll have me, I think I want to try, yes."

Tedd's smile widened enough to match Grace's. He glanced at Grace, who nodded slightly, and he said, "Well, we'd like to try, too." They slipped around the table to her side, and pulled her up into a three-way hug; not a sandwich, but a triangle. Sarah breathed in their scents, felt their muscles under their shirts as she hugged them, and felt ridiculously happy. 

A minute passed, and then, by unspoken agreement, they all let go of each other and stepped back a little. Sarah wiped at her eyes, and said, "I hate to be so... pragmatic, but... I _really_ need to go to the bathroom." Tedd and Grace laughed, and Sarah went and grabbed her purse and headed to the bathroom down the hall, as they began to clear the dessert dishes from the table.

Returning from the bathroom, Sarah saw they were now sitting in the living room on the couch. She tossed her purse back onto the entryway table, and went to sit down at the end of the couch. It was long enough to seat four or five, so there was some space between them. She sat with her back to the arm of the couch, facing Tedd and Grace, who were sitting right next to each other. As she settled in, they scooted closer to her, so their legs were touching.

Tedd cocked his head quizzically. "Why  _do_ girls carry their purses to the bathroom? You don't look like you touched up your makeup."

Sarah tsk'd. "If I've done it properly, you shouldn't be able to tell."

"Yeah, but you didn't."

Sarah shrugged. "True."

"So, why take your purse with you?"

Sarah looked at him, bemused. He should certainly know there were other things a woman might need from her purse in the bathroom. She decided she could be blunt with someone who spent a portion of his time as a woman. "In case my period started; it's due this week."

Tedd frowned. "No, it's not."

"I beg your pardon?" She was taken aback by his bald statement. "I think I'd know that better than you."

"Well, usually, yes, but we used the TF gun to transform you to male five days ago."

"So?"

"So..." he looked puzzled, frowning slightly. "Your period won't start until about three weeks after changing back to female. As usual."

Sarah's mind froze for a moment as she tried to make sense of this statement. Certain things began to click into place.

"So, wait a minute, wait a minute, are you telling me that _you're_ the reason I didn't have a period at all last summer?"

"Well, in a manner of speaking, I guess; yes, of course."

"What do you mean, 'of course'? I never knew that was a, a, a _feature_ of the TF gun!"

"Er. Uh. I told you about the sex-changing features of the gun originally being in part to correct alien populations where there was a drastic sex imbalance, right?"

That vaguely rang a bell with Sarah. "Okay, so?"

"And that a transformed female can't become pregnant until about a week and a half or so after transformation."

Sarah frowned. "I... don't recall that part. But what does that have to do—oh."

"Right. A transformed woman is hormonally set so that she won't ovulate for a week to a week and a half after transformation. So if you experience a full sex-change transformation at any point, it, well, it resets your menstrual cycle back to essentially a day or so after your period ended. And last summer, we did a _lot_ of transformations. Since you underwent a full sex-change transformation five days ago, your next period should be in about two to three weeks. Unless you transform again."

Sarah digested this for a minute. "You know, this might seem intuitively clear to you mad scientist types, but the implications of all that went right over my head. Perhaps obviously."

"I'm sorry, it never occurred to me that you hadn't realized that. Why didn't you ask me about it at the time?"

Sarah stared blankly at Tedd. "Tedd... you may be a scientist, and you may sometimes be a woman, but you're _not_ my gynecologist. It never occurred to me to mention it to you because it's... well, it's not something girls usually discuss with boys."

"Yes, but with all the transformations we were doing, I kept asking you to let me know if you had any unexpected side-effects or weird physical changes; it was important to track any unintended consequences."

"Right, but I never thought the transformations had anything to do with my periods, or lack thereof!"

Tedd rubbed his forehead and looked vaguely guilty. "I'm sorry you were worried, and I'm sorry I assumed you understood the implications of the sex changes. I hope it didn't cause you _too_ much anxiety."

Sarah snorted. "Well, aside from an unpleasant pelvic exam, if that isn't redundant, and a bunch of blood tests that showed nothing amiss, no. I'm not sure my mother completely believed me when I told her that I was still a virgin, and that was why I wasn't worried about pregnancy or STDs being the cause."

"Uff. That sounds like an awkward conversation."

"Eh... we've had worse. At least as a family."

"Oh?"

"Hunh." Sarah paused, considering, as a connection clicked into place. "My sister had a girlfriend for a while, when she was in college. So, if there's a genetic link to being gay or bi, I guess we both got it. But my parents' reactions when Carol told us were—mixed. Mom was pretty freaked out at first, kept going on about never having grandchildren, as if she wasn't living in the twenty-first century. Dad was more accepting, he calmed her down. Eventually. In fact, something he said once makes me suspect he had a boyfriend before Mom came along."

"So, is Carol seeing anyone right now?" Grace asked.

"No, she's pretty much married to her work. The last few dates of hers I've heard about have been with guys, but nothing serious. Of course, she may not be mentioning any dates with women in order to keep the peace with Mom."

"So, would dating the two of us be better because Tedd is male, or worse because it's more than one person, one of them female?"

Sarah shrugged. "No idea. Probably—probably worse, unfortunately. At least for Mom."

Tedd looked thoughtful. "That does raise a point I was wondering how to bring up. How... open do you want to be about all _this_?" He gestured vaguely at the three of them.

Sarah paused, looked at them both. "I... Hmm. I don't _ever_ want you two to think I'm ashamed of you, or of being with you, but, you're right, it's something to be... circumspect about." She thought a moment. "I don't care if our circle of friends know, do you?"

Tedd and Grace both shook their heads. "Personally, I'd be happy to shout it from the rooftops," said Grace, prompting a laugh from Tedd and Sarah.

"Well, I agree in spirit, if not in actuality. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I've already discussed it with Susan, when I was looking for some advice, and I mentioned it in passing to Elliot."

"Hah. Yeah, he called me last night to ask about it. To be honest, I was kinda' worried about dating my best friend's ex, but the fact that he's already moved on to Ashley made it all a lot easier. For both of us, I think. The conversation was easier than I'd feared; mostly, he just wanted to make sure I didn't hurt you."

Sarah blinked. "Really? He wasn't worried about _me_ hurting _you_? Or Grace?"

"Eh... for all his experiences at being a woman, I think he still retains a streak of chauvinism. Or maybe he's just protective of you because you're his ex, I don't know." He shrugged. "So, anyway, for the moment we keep this relationship quiet in public, and around our families?"

"Yeah. I'm afraid so, at least for me. Though that does remind me of another question I've wondered about," Sarah said.

"What?"

Sarah took a breath to brace herself. "Does Edward know... um... that you two, are, you know, ah—"

"Having sex?" Grace put in helpfully.

Sarah blushed. "Well, to put it bluntly, yes."

Grace didn't say anything, but she looked to Tedd. Tedd rubbed his mouth for a moment, then said, slowly, "I _think_ he knows? I mean, we're discreet, we never do anything, uh, noisy when he's home, but he's gone a lot on business. I figure he's probably noticed at some point that we're not always in our respective rooms at night, but he's never said anything."

"And we do our own laundry, so he never sees our sheets."

"Your sheets?" Sarah said blankly. "What do your sheets have to do with anything?"

"Uh..." Tedd looked to Grace.

"Oh! Right, you probably wouldn't know, being a virgin. Sex can leave some pretty funky stains on the sheets, from semen and other secretions," Grace supplied.

"Semen?" Sarah blushed at the word, but she went on. "Isn't that mostly, um, trapped in the condoms?"

Tedd and Grace exchanged glances. "No... we don't use condoms."

Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Really? Are you on the pill, Grace? Or is there some quirk of your biology that I don't know about that makes that not necessary?" She was struck by a thought. "You _can_ have children someday, if you want to, can't you? I mean, can you have children with a, uh, _Homo sapiens_ partner?"

Grace looked sober. "We're not totally certain. We're _pretty_ sure that I can, in human form, but the only way to test that is, well, to get pregnant. Which I have no interest in doing just yet, even though I'm sure Tedd will make beautiful babies." Tedd gave a bashful grin and looked pleased.

"Oh. So, if you don't want to get pregnant, what are you doing to, uh, prevent it?"

Tedd smiled. "We take a two-prong attack. Firstly, think back on our conversation of the past few minutes."

Sarah did, then said "Oh! You transform to male so often, you never ovulate?" She paused, then added, "Wait, that would also mean, you've never actually had a period?"

"Yes to the first, very rarely to the second."

 _"I've_ never had a period," said Tedd.

Sarah looked at him, then burst out giggling. "I, I know what you're saying, but—" The nervous tension she felt discussing sexual matters made his comment seem even funnier than it probably deserved. She kept laughing, and Tedd and Grace joined in.

"Okay, okay, I guess that _did_ sound strange, coming from a guy, but what I meant was, I've never stayed female for long enough for that to happen. It's just impractical for me to stay transformed for more than a day at a time, what with going to school, or out shopping, or dealing with my father's disapproving looks." He shrugged. "Maybe someday I'll be in a place where I can stay female for a month if I feel like it. Though, really, I don't think I would feel like it, unless it was for an experiment."

"Why not? You certainly spend a lot of your time female as it is."

"Yes, but... even though I, I'm gender fluid, I still _primarily_ think of myself as male. It may be a sixty-forty split, but the male side is dominant."

"So..." Sarah felt her blush returning, but she plowed on, knowing that this was important. "I—this may be a 'third date' kind of issue, but... since we're on the topic... if I, if we, that is... if I were to join you two. _Someday_ , not now. In bed. Um. Would you use condoms... with me?"

"If you wanted us to, of course. But, I said we used a two-pronged approach to contraception? The second prong also lies with the TF gun. I have a modified version of my own base form that is completely 'base-line', except for one small difference: no vas deferens."

Sarah frowned. "Vas deferens? Is that German?"

Grace giggled, and said "No. Well, maybe? But it's the medical term for the tube that connects the testes to the ejaculatory duct. In other words, Tedd has given himself a vasectomy, of sorts."

"I.e., I'm shooting blanks," he put in helpfully.

Sarah was pretty sure her blush was never going to recede. She wondered why she'd bothered with putting on blush makeup, it certainly was redundant. "And can you use the TF gun to, uh, check for, or control, um, STDs?"

Tedd looked surprised. "I... don't know? That never occurred to me. It would certainly be a useful thing. Hunh." He looked off into the distance for a moment, as if envisioning something. "If you took some base-line readings of yourself while healthy, then compared—"

Grace cut him off. "Sweetie, maybe now isn't the time to work on that?" She turned to Sarah. "We both were virgins, and we've only slept with each other, so we've not worried about that. If you're still a virgin too—"

Sarah snorted. "What, my blushing doesn't make _that_ perfectly obvious? Yes, I am."

"Well, then, we're in a closed ecosystem, with very little chance of those kinds of diseases being introduced."

"Hunh." Sarah thought about it for a moment, then asked, "If your natural body is almost identical to your, um, sterile form, how do you keep track of which one you are?"

"Oh, right." Tedd placed his hands flat on the couch between them. "Notice any differences between my hands?"

Sarah looked at his hands; they looked perfectly normal. "I assume you mean, other than being left and right? Not really, except for that freckle on the back of your right hand."

"Exactly that. I wasn't being completely accurate when I said the lack of a vas deferens was the only difference; I also placed that freckle there to mark my, what did you call it, my sterile form."

"What do _you_ call it?"

"My safe form."

"Sensible enough."

"And I take the same precaution when I'm male," added Grace. Sarah remembered how hot Grace's male form was. She shoved away a mental image of being with two male partners and the possibilities it opened up before she could get even more flustered.

"Right. Good to know. Thanks. Can we change the topic now before all the blood goes to my blush and my head explodes?"

Grace laughed and stood up. "Actually, we should probably get going, if we're going to make it to our show." She reached out her hands and pulled Sarah and Tedd up too. They all got their coats on and headed out.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Andrea's Fudge Cake.](http://www.cooks.com/recipe/ty1zm0et/andreas-fudge-cake.html) For reals. Well worth the effort.


	6. Me Three.

When they got to the car, Grace went to get into the back seat. "Don't you want to ride shotgun?" Sarah asked.

"No, you can," Grace replied.

"But you usually sit up front when we go somewhere." 

"Well, I think that was just pairing— keeping the couple together. Which won't really work for a triad, so... maybe we'll take turns?"

"Oh. Okay." Sarah climbed into the front passenger seat, as Tedd got behind the wheel. "Are you going to get a driver's license, Grace?"

"It's on my 'to-do' list; maybe this summer, after graduation."

They spent the rest of the short ride to the theater talking about driving lessons, with Sarah offering joking critiques of Tedd's driving technique (which was actually quite good), the better to "teach" Grace how to drive.

At the theater, Sarah was pleasantly surprised when Tedd and Grace juggled things as they were sitting down in order to place her between the two of them. They were almost the only people in the audience; no-one was sitting behind them, less than a dozen people were sitting in front of them. It was nice, if a bit odd for a Friday night. Sarah commented on the fact.

"Well, this film's been in the theaters for almost a month now," Tedd said. "And it's spring break; a lot of folks are out of town."

Having gone to the movies with Tedd and Grace many times, Sarah knew they weren't the type of movie-goers to spend the film necking; they actually watched the film. That knowledge allowed her to relax, sitting between them, not worrying that someone might move to kiss her. 

Not necking didn't mean not cuddling, though, as it turned out. Part-way through the film she felt a familiar weight across the back of her shoulders, a feeling she was used to from going to the movies with Elliot. Without thinking about it, she leaned her head to the right a little, to be surprised by bumping into Grace's head at her height, not above hers, like Elliot's would have been.

"Oh!" She turned to face Grace. 

"Is this okay?" whispered Grace, smiling a little hesitantly. 

Sarah knew no-one was watching in the near-empty theater. She smiled, and turned back to face the movie, resting her head on Grace's shoulder for the moment. A few minutes later, Tedd took her left hand in his. A while later, Grace removed her arm from around her shoulders to grab some popcorn, and Tedd's arm shortly took its place. So they went, alternating at random intervals, making Sarah feel warm and happy. 

 

* * *

 

Sarah was enjoying their verbal dissection of the movie's multitudinous flaws on the drive home when Tedd said, "Sorry, complete change of topic, but we're getting close to home. And, uh..." 

"And what?" Grace prompted after a moment.

"And, well, in the, um, spirit of direct and open communication..." he paused again, then blurted out, "I, for one, would like a nice, traditional, end-of-date... goodnight kiss."

"Me, too!" said Grace, with an enthusiasm that Sarah found slightly unnerving.

"Oh." Sarah's face began to burn. "Yeah... me three," she admitted shyly.

Tedd said, "But if we drop you off at your front door, it's kinda' in view of your parents, if they're up, or at the very least, the neighbors. Any suggestions?"

Sarah was glad that for once they couldn't see her blush. "Uh... would it sound too forward of me to say, I've already given that question some thought?"

Grace and Tedd laughed. "No," said Grace. "I think that's wonderful."

"Did you come up with a solution?" Tedd asked.

"Well... If you walk me to the _back_ door of the house, the neighbors won't see a thing because of the hedges and garage, and the back porch light isn't usually on. And my parents wouldn't see anything unless they're sitting in the laundry room in the dark, looking out the window. Which I can't really imagine them doing."

"Excellent," said Tedd. 

Sarah was glad he hadn't raised the question earlier, so that she only had to endure a single nerve-wracking minute of additional travel time before they pulled into her driveway. She noted that only the kitchen light was on, which her mother always left on for her when she was out late. She got out of the car, and pushed the car door closed with a gentle _thump_ instead of a slam. Tedd and Grace followed suit. She shoved her hands into her coat pockets and walked up the driveway to the back door behind the house, not looking at Tedd and Grace as they followed. When she reached the door, she turned around, to find them just a couple of steps behind her. They all looked at one another in the shadows behind the house, illuminated solely by street lights bouncing off of the trees and nearby houses. As Sarah's eyes adjusted to the low illumination, she could see that Grace was smiling slightly, and Tedd looked sober. Sarah could only imagine that _she_ looked like a deer caught in headlights, as she shifted from foot to foot.

"Well..." Sarah began. "Thank you for dinner, and a lovely evening."

"No, thank _you,_ " Grace replied. "I'm glad you came over. I'm glad we talked. I hope things... continue to go well from here."

"Me too," said both Tedd and Sarah at the same time. They looked at each other, then gave nervous little laughs. 

"I... hmm." Sarah licked her lips, and looked at him, her pulse pounding so hard she could hear it. "I'm not..."

"Sarah?" Grace said.

Sarah turned back towards Grace, to find she'd silently moved closer to her while she looked at Tedd. Grace reached out a hand towards Sarah's head, slowly, tentatively, giving Sarah time to pull back or react. Grace's hand slipped behind her head, and she pulled Sarah's face closer to hers. In the dim light she couldn't see the color of Grace's beautiful green eyes, they just looked solid black, like her eyes were fully dilated and passionately interested in Sarah. Sarah breathed deep, taking in Grace's scent, as she leaned in to close the last inch of distance between them. Their lips touched, lightly, then Grace pulled back a fraction of an inch, as if making sure this was all right. Sarah made a small noise of wanting deep in her throat, and reached her left hand up to gently pull Grace closer to her too. They kissed for a second, then pulled apart, a gentle dance of testing the waters, then a third brief kiss, followed by a fourth, slightly longer kiss. Sarah decided that Grace tasted even better than she smelled, and she found her eyes closing without thinking about it. On the next kiss, she leaned into it a little, and let the tip of her tongue slip out of her mouth to gently taste and trace the contours of Grace's lips. She was rewarded with a small sound from Grace, so quiet as to be almost inaudible, and on the next kiss Grace's tongue returned the favor, lightly teasing her lips, which felt super-sensitive. She didn't know if Grace's body temperature was higher than a normal human's, or if it just felt that way because of the rising heat in her own body. Sarah let her tongue out a fraction of an inch to gently touch Grace's tongue, and was surprised at the deep flush of heat she felt at that tiny sensation. She pulled back a few inches and opened her eyes, to find Grace smiling at her, her eyes half-lidded with a sensual pleasure similar to her own. 

 _So that's what it's like to kiss another woman_ , she thought dazedly.

"Wow," Sarah whispered. She was surprised at how deep and husky her own voice sounded. "You... are _so_ hot." 

"And so are _you_. You _make_ me hot," Grace purred in response.

Sarah swallowed. "That was... some good-night kiss."

Grace grinned impishly. "And it was only _half_ of your good-night kisses."

Sarah felt Tedd's hand on her right shoulder. She dropped her left hand from the back of Grace's head, but left it wrapped around her waist as she turned towards Tedd. He moved in closer, so that they were forming a triangle, similar to the hug they'd shared at dinner, but this time there was an intimacy in Tedd's gaze that she'd never seen directed at her before. Unlike Grace, he looked a little nervous, and she was reminded that he'd said he'd had a crush on her once upon a time.  _I hope I can live up to his fantasies,_ she thought, then wrapped her right arm around his shoulders. She bemusedly realized that the three of them were almost exactly the same height; most of her kissing experience had been with Elliot, who was a good half a head taller than she.  _At least I won't have to worry about getting a crick in my neck_ , she thought, then she moved closer to Tedd and for a moment she stopped thinking, feeling his lips on hers. He was, if anything, gentler and more tentative than Grace. They exchanged a half dozen light pecks, lips barely touching, their noses rubbing against each other. Sarah ran her hand through the hair on the back of his head, enjoying its texture. Tedd shuddered a little at her touch. Then Sarah moved her head a little from side to side during a kiss, brushing her lips across his, feeling the texture of his skin against hers. Tedd responded by leaning in a bit, increasing the pressure of his lips on hers. She once again took the initiative, and let her tongue slip out to trace his mouth, more fully and aggressively than she had with Grace, because she was a bit more aroused by now. Tedd pulled back a fraction, so he could look her in the eyes. He no longer looked nervous, but was smiling, and there was a heat in his shaded eyes that made her catch her breath. She leaned in and placed her lips firmly against his. No tongue, just warmth and pressure. He pulled back, and then leaned in for another kiss, surprising her by opening his mouth a little and catching her lower lip between his teeth in a quick, gentle nip. She gasped, a sexual heat running through the core of her body. She whimpered quietly as he released her lip and pressed his mouth to hers. Sarah leaned into the kiss, running her tongue around his lips. They pulled apart, both breathing heavily.

"Umf. More wow," she said quietly, smiling. "I never knew the mad scientist had such passion lurking inside him." Tedd smiled. 

"You have _no_ idea," Grace said, grinning, which drew more blushes from both Tedd and Sarah.

Sarah was surprised when Grace reached out her left hand and pulled Tedd's face to hers, to gently kiss him too. After a startled moment, she realized she shouldn't have been surprised; although the date might have primarily been framed as "them" as a unit dating "her", they were each, individually, still a part of it. She watched them kiss, from less than a foot away. She no longer felt like an outsider, but a participant-observer, gaining pleasure from watching their pleasure in each other. Tedd and Grace kept their kisses simple, light, teasing; at the same level of intensity as their kisses with Sarah, but they were still very hot to watch. She'd never observed friends kissing like this, so intimately close. It almost felt voyeuristic, but not really, because their arms around her included her in their pleasure, even if they weren't kissing her.

For the first time, she fully understood a new word she'd read about when researching polyamory: _compersion_ , the feeling of joy created by seeing one's loved ones take joy in each other. It was both beautiful and hot; it aroused her almost as much as when they had been kissing her. Sarah just knew her panties were going to be a soggy mess when she undressed for bed. 

Grace and Tedd broke apart, and smiled at each other, then turned and smiled at her. "Well. You each asked for a good night kiss. I think you got more than one," Sarah said. Tedd's smile widened, and Grace chuckled, a deep-throated, almost purring sound. Sarah leaned in and gave each of them one final kiss, not too lingering, but not a quick peck. 

"Good night, you two."

"Good night, sweetie."

"G'night, Sarah."

She reluctantly let go of them and took a step back, separating herself from them. She didn't _want_ to let them go, but she knew that if she stayed there a minute longer, they'd end up making out on her porch, and she wasn't quite ready for that. Yet. Still smiling, she pulled her keys out of her purse and turned to open the door. She let herself in, then turned to see her new boyfriend and girlfriend one last time, before they gave a little wave and turned to walk back down the driveway. She sighed as she closed the door, then leaned against it, grinning delightedly to herself.  _That was the most successful first date I've_ ever _been on._ She brushed her fingers gently over her lips, which still felt over-sensitive and heated, and shivered at the sensation. She stood up, locked the door, and went to switch off the kitchen light before heading upstairs. 

 _A triad may not be a "normal" relationship, by most people's standards, but... it sure feels like the right one for me._ Humming the theme song from the movie they'd just watched, she wandered up to bed.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This started just as a mental image of Grace trying to hold still long enough for Sarah to draw her. Perhaps obviously, it got away from me...
> 
> [UPDATE] Direct Sequel is _The Scientist, the Squirrel, and the Artist_.
> 
> With thanks to Kuilin for the help with copy-editing. All remaining errors are my own, where I chose to ignore their probably more grammatically correct advice :-).


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